Enugu – The Enugu State Boxing Coach, Blaise Ude, on Wednesday attributed the falling standard of boxing in the country to a lack of commitment by the National Sports Commission (NSC) toward the development of the sport.
Ude told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu that the decline in standards were regrettabl, noting that the country still had the capacity to turn things around.
“Boxing in Nigeria is deteriorating because of a lack of National championships and other levels of competitions.
“In the past two years, the country has not been able to stage a single championship. When I was an active boxer, we used to have two to three championships in the country but these days we hardly witness any.
“For sport to grow, we need to have competitions all the year round. This is because boxers need to be exposed to modern facilities and strategies in the game,” he said.
He said that the country had not been able to measure up to some other countries because there had not been specific criteria for selecting those that would represent the country at the upcoming 2016 Olympics.
“We saw what happened this year where athletes were selected for the African Games (AG) without the National Sports Festival (NSF) being staged ahead,” he said.
He urged the NSC to involve individuals and corporate bodies in staging regular competitions in the country, instead of leaving sportsmen and women to rot after intensive trainings.
Ude also urged NSC to introduce leagues in boxing at Zonal levels to provide opportunities for boxers to compete.
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“The league will create avenues for discovery of talented boxers to be raised for national and international competitions.
Mohammed Ali and others who did their nations proud at the international levels were discovered at the grassroots,” Ude said.
Ude said the way forward for boxing to grow would be the introduction of zonal leagues even without National Sports Festivals. (NAN)
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