The much-anticipated President Jamal Boxing Championships earlier planned for Nyayo Stadium, will now be held at Charter Hall from November 17 to 20, the Boxing Federation of Kenya has confirmed.
BFK secretary general, Dave Munuhe said the stage is already set for the event which will be used as a yardstick to identify pugilists who will fly the country's flag in two major competitions.
"This is more than just a championship. Other activities that will be going on include a selection of Kenya women's team for 2022 AIBA Women World Championship scheduled for March in Instanbul, Turkey," said Munuhe.
"We shall also be using the tournament to select the team that will participate in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in July next year in Birmingham," he added.
Hit Squad head coach Benjamin Musa confirmed they would raise teams from the tournament.
"We need to take at least 13 boxers to the women's championships but only five have been actively involved in competitions, so we'll have to identify more boxers for the remaining slots," said Musa.
Kenya now has more time to prepare for the AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships after the global show was deferred by four months.
The decision to postpone the event was brought to public light through a communique signed by AIBA president, Umar Kremlev, who cited a wide array of challenges bedevilling member federations.
“Whilst AIBA has been working hard to maintain the schedule of this event, the feedback received is that too many national federations are facing difficult situations and restrictions within their countries. Regrettably, the Covid-19 situation is too difficult at the moment,” read the statement.
But even as they move to select a fresh team, Hit Squad coaches will have to find effective ways of keeping in tandem with the dynamic rules of the game.
While absolving the coaching unit following Kenya's big flop both in Tokyo and Belgrade, national team captain Nick Okoth lashed out at tournament organisers for constantly tinkering with the rules.
"Our coaches can't be blamed in any way. They gave us top-notch preparations only for the judges to use completely different guidelines in determining the winners of bouts," said Okoth.
Okoth tore into the officials over their brazen failure to lay bare the rules governing play in the ring, thus exposing all the Kenyan pugilists to easy defeats.
"We realised late in the day that the rules were quite different from those we were subjected to at the Tokyo Olympics," said an agitated Okoth.
Okoth's sentiments were echoed by coach Benjamin Musa, who equally raised grave concerns about the rules.
“What both our men and women boxers have lacked all along is exposure in major tournaments. It's only there that they can learn about the constant changes being made to the rules because the game is so dynamic," said Musa.
“For example, it was during the just concluded men's World Boxing Championships in Serbia that we realised boxers are not supposed to punch with force to score points. Meaning points can still be earned by tapping," lamented Musa.
