SA, Botswana boxers to work together

The Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) is expected to join forces with the South African National Boxing Organisation (SANOBA) later this month to get the two bodies to tap from one another in their growth endeavours. 

A bilateral agreement, which will be made official later this month will see the two countries sharing knowledge and expertise on various facets of amateur boxing.  This week, BoBA president Dr Thato Patlakwe said they have already carried out a benchmarking exercise in South Africa, thus paving way for the collaboration that will see the two organisations complementing each other and developing their athletes and technical personnel. 

“Through this agreement, we want to develop our referees and judges and increase the role of women in boxing,” Patlakwe said. In addition, the BoBA president said SANOBA had a high performance centre from which Botswana boxers could benefit immensely. “At this performance centre, our athletes can be monitored scientifically as they make progress in their careers,” Patlakwe said.

He added that SANOBA was impressed with Botswana’s performance at the regional Zone IV Games that were recently held in Pretoria where Botswana became regional champions after winning several medals in different divisions.
“SANOBA will also have a chance to visit BoBA and learn what we are doing right,” Patlakwe noted.

He said the two countries would work together to develop Aiba Professional Boxing (APB) that was introduced by the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) recently. “South Africa has since been chosen as a pilot country for APB,” he explained. “Thus far they have two athletes under the professional boxing programme.”Patlakwe said Botswana was yet to set up APB structures and that some of their athletes already qualify for the professional programme after competing at recent international competitions like the 2014 Commonwealth Games.