All African Games silver medalist Shaffi Bakari has ruled out a return from to his previous light- flyweight division, keen to stick with flyweight for which he has been training for a couple of months.
Bakari, who missed out on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic slots during last year's qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal, feels it would be unwise to scale down again after a trouble-free run in his new division.
"I feel good in my current weight division even though slots for Tokyo proved elusive. I was really psyched up for Tokyo and looking forward to the Final World Qualifiers in Paris. Following the cancellation of the global qualifiers by the Boxing Task Force who went by the ranking system to fill the voids and where Kenya got two slots, I am now looking forward to Paris 2024," said Bakari.
Bakari moved on from light- flyweight last season after the division was dropped from Olympic Games.
"You see, after light-fly was dropped from the Olympics it was only logical to move a division up" he quipped.
Kenya will field four boxers at the Tokyo Olympics; Elly Ajowi and Elizabeth Akinyi who qualified through the ranking system as well as Nick 'Commander' Okoth and Christine Ongare, who qualified in Dakar last year.
Bakari says all isn't lost after the Tokyo Olympics qualification debacle: "I will be turning 30 by the time we go for the next Olympic Games. Flyweight suits me well because I have represented the country and won a medal (silver) in the division during the All African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
Shaffi is excited by the fact that Kenya has very knowledgeable coaches and that he's in very safe hands as he embarks on chasing the elusive Olympic dream."The coaching staff led by Musa Benjamin and the fitness trainer brought to us by NOCK have really been awesome. I'm sure they will give me the much need guidance and hope as I embark on Paris 2024 qualification. They will be rectifying every single mistake as we move on. I'm also glad our federation has given us an enabling environment."
Bakari hopes sports will be back soon to enable the boxers return to their daily grind."I'm now training on my own. You never know, we might come back and find yourself unfit. So it's a matter of keeping your body in the best possible shape. Covid-19 period has been a tough one for sportsmen and women bit the pandemic has also taught us how to do things differently, meaning we are learning many things in the evolving situation," he added.
