National Inter-mediate Boxing Championships;
11th – 19th January 2014
Lugogo Indoor Stadium, Kampala.
How fast times change! Since 2010, the Government through the National Council of Sports has remembered that the once flourishing country’s sporting gold mine in the name of boxing needs a face-lift in terms of continued provision of equipment, money, man power and advisory services.
On the eve of the weigh in ceremony for the first in as many year of the national intermediate boxing championships, the National Council of sports officials led by the Chairperson himself, Bosco Onyik and the secretary general, Jasper Aligawesa delivered a timely monetary boost of Ug. shs 5 million and a cross section of boxing gear to the officials of the Uganda Boxing Federation at the National Council of Sports Headquarters in Lugogo, Kampala.
“Please, make good use of this gear. It is for the national team. Take note that this is the first of the endless equipment that we shall give you”, remarked, Jasper Aligawesa at the brief but colorful handover of the equipment.
The donated equipment included, 40 gym guards, 4 vests, 10 pairs of gloves, 3 training pads and 10 head guards.
The National Intermediate Championships are set to start on Saturday with the weigh-in ceremony before the real ring action will unveil the following day (Sunday) with over 200 boxers from close to 50 clubs across the country.
Up country clubs from Kilembe, Kasese, Mbale, Jinja, Masaka, Entebbe, Busia, Tororo, Hoima and those from Kampala Boxing Club, Africa Sport, East Coast, Katwe, Kololo High, Zana, Mengo among others will take part.
The intermediate championships come in at a time when the National Novice tournament was successfully held weeks back.
Four years back, the federation was embroiled in administrative wrangles that dented the sport which was once Uganda’s best dating as far back as the 1960’s through to the early 90’s.
The Kenneth Gimugu led administration looks bright with great planning and strategies well ahead of time. The Kalangala based magistrate has ushered in a few changes since being elected into office in September 2013.
Upon his election, Gimugu highlighted his 10 point programme that he said was streamlined to resurrect the sport. “The best time to plant a tree was 10 years back, but the second best time to plant a tree is now”, the trained lawyer, who is now a court magistrate covering the entire 84 islands of Kalangala District remarked then.
Gimugu revealed to Kawowo Sports that he intends to bring together all stake holders in the Boxing family on board to ensure a coherent leadership.
“Gone are the 7 years of disruptive conflicts.We need to get working” says Gimugu, who sings praises of his boxing mentor, Jimmy Ssekinogga of Entebbe.
Already, the UBF calendar has been well designed and laid out. Infact, the 2014 calendar event was released to the press in October 2013 and many could be left wondering hoe many of the sports federations in the country had released their respective calendars by that time.
With the National Open Championships hours from kick off of the January 12-19 at Lugogo Volleyball grounds, the next event on the calendar will then run from February 23-27 and this will this time be for the schools to out box each other in the National Schools Championships at the same venue.
Other events included in the calendar are Bika Bya Buganda Boxing Championships in March , AIBA Youth World Boxing Championship in April, Inter Regions Boxing tournament in May, Inter-Cities Boxing Tournament in June, Major General Nyangweso Boxing Tournament in July, Commonwealth Games in July, Youth Olympic Games in August, AIBA Women Boxing Championship in October and lastly the Bingwa Ya Bingwa boxing championships at a date yet to be announced.
Should all these events be played according to plan, then the writing is surely on the wall, that the sport (amateur) which has been in Limbo for the past 4 years is on the trek to Heaven and Godly Blessings.
What possibly remains now is how the two professional rival factions can assimilate into one body to bring sanity to the beautiful sport.
