National boxing team Hit Squad will be using the Africa Zone 3 Boxing Championship in Kinshasa Congo to gauge their mettle ahead of major global shows, deputy captain Elizabeth Andiego has said.
The team of 22 boxers depart for the games on Sunday and Andiego has assured local boxing enthusiasts of a medal haul.
“For the women boxers, this is like a build-up tournament as we work towards the World Championships in Turkey in a month and we hope to use it to gauge ourselves,” Andiego said.
Andiego reckons she and her teammates have a glorious opportunity to emulate last year's performance, where they scooped 13 medals — including one gold.
“The morale in the team is high and everyone is ready to battle for a medal. We are certainly looking forward to a better performance than last year,” Andiego said.
The traveling party was whittled down from the initial 26-member provisional squad that punched furiously on the bag for a month after pitching a non-residential training camp at the Mathare Depot in Nairobi.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics quartet of Nick Okoth, Elly Ajowi, Christine Ongare and Elizabeth Akinyi have all made the cut.
Andiego is convinced they had sufficient time to sharpen their talons well enough for the task ahead and has warned their opponents to expect a fierce battle.
“We've been training for over a month. So far the training has been going on well, we've done all we can including sparring and endurance exercises,” Andiego said.
Early in match, head coach Benjamin Musa said he will use the tournament to select his final team for the 2020 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Musa reiterated the team's desire to make the country proud at the quadrennial games slated for July, thus the need for effective planning.
“The Africa Zone 3 Championships is key to our preparations ahead of the Commonwealth Games, given it will afford us an opportunity to identify our final team,” Musa said.
“We are very serious with preparations and keen to register a positive outcome as we eye a medal haul in Birmingham in order to make our country proud.”
