Kenya to field teams for AIBA championships

The Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) is planning to send a men’s team and hopefully a female one to the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) World Championships to be held later this year at Evaterinburg, Russia.

BAK competition secretary Patrick “Mont” Waweru has disclosed that Kenya will field a full for the competition set to be held on September 7th to 21st.

“Taking full team for the men’s event will depend on funds available and on the slots Kenya is likely to be given by AIBA,” said Waweru while releasing this year’s calendar of events. “We have few female boxers hence their number will depend on who will have trained well.”

Waweru however noted that they will field full teams for both men and women at the Africa Boxing Championships scheduled for may dates, venues to be disclosed later. He released the calendar of events where boxing fans were assured of an entertaining year packed with boxing events.

County Novices will debut the year on January 24 to 26 at the respective counties followed by National Novices scheduled for February 14 to 18 at Nairobi’s Kaloleni Social Hall. The two events will pave way for the County Intermediate Championships on March 7 to 9 at the Counties before the National Intermediate on March 28-30 in Nairobi. National Team selection will follow on April 24 to 27 at the City Stadium.

Waweru also said that the National Boxing league will begin in Mwingi on May 23 to 25. The league that Waweru confirmed to have 5 legs will hold the second leg in Thika on July 18 to 20. The third leg will be staged in Mombasa on August 20 to 22 paving way for both the fourth and fifth legs to be held in Nairobi on September 19 to 21 and October 31 to November 2 respectively.

He further noted that this year’s African Games slated for August 23 to September 3 will be key to both their men and women’s teams as the championships will be used as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo olympic games. This is the first time that the competition will be used as an Olympic qualifier since the 2007 Algiers African Games.