Moorosi Tsiane
BOXING coach Sibusiso Keketsi, who is one of the two coaches who travelled with five boxers who are participating in the ongoing African Games in Rabat, Morocco has expressed worry over the introduction of new weight categories that local boxers have to participate in.
Lesotho is represented by 27 athletes at the multi sporting event games competing in in boxing, cycling, taekwondo, weightlifting, tennis and athletics.
Moroke Mokhotho, Tloholohelo Mokhesi and Qhobosheane Mohlerepe are the three boxers who will be fighting in the new categories.
Other boxers representing the country are Arena Pakela and Mokhachane Moshoeshoe and will all compete in the male category.
Keketsi told the Lesotho Times this week that new weight categories have been introduced in preparation for the 2020 Olympics.
“I think the boxers are ready,” Keketsi said adding: “We had challenges that affected the athletes during the preparations for the games but we are over than now and are concentrating on the games”.
“However, the only worry is that three of the five boxers will be fighting new weight categories which they have never fought in before,” Keketsi added.
Keketsi said they were informed about the changes when they submitted their team before the commencement of the games and it was already late for them to make any alterations.
“The games manual came with the old weight categories that we are used to but we were shocked when the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) informed us that the weight categories we had submitted didn’t match the ones in the system. We subsequently asked for confirmation but it never came.
“Although we learnt before we travelled to Morocco, it wouldn’t have made any difference because it was too late,” he said.
He said they tried to make changes by organising a national championship but said it was not enough and the time was limited so much that they could not attend any foreign tournaments before travelling to Morocco.
“We staged a national championship using the new weight categories as we tried to prepare our boxers but we had still anticipated that we would get a chance to at least take them to a tournament outside the country but that never happened. It would have been good to expose our players to those new weight categories before they travelled to Morocco.
“However, we have no option but to support our boxers and see how they will fare,” Keketsi said.
