•Musa said the squad still boasts young boxers with a bright future ahead of them.
•The national boxing team returned home empty-handed from the second World Olympic qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand
Image: HANDOUT
Hit Squad head coach Benjamin Musa reckons his charges can rise from the ashes and find their footing again on the international stage after failing to seal the 2024 Paris Olympics slots.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday, Musa said the squad still boasts young boxers with a bright future ahead of them.
“All is not lost. We are going back to the drawing board and I believe we can turn around our disappointment and use the lessons we learned to put our act together,” Musa remarked.
“I must say there is still a lot of hope for the nation considering the number of young and upcoming boxers who represented us in the qualifiers,” he said.
Musa spoke after the national boxing team returned home empty-handed from the second World Olympic qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday.
“Our boxers fought a good battle and it is quite disheartening that we didn’t manage to secure even a single Olympic ticket.
“That’s the nature of sports. What’s important is that we learned so many things which will prove helpful in our future endeavours,” Musa remarked.
The seasoned gaffer expressed optimism that the nation would parade more boxers in major competitions.
“Our medal prospects always get limited by the lean squads we usually send in our campaigns and the qualifiers were no different.
Most of our opponents usually travel with full squads to the championships and this bolsters their chances of winning,” Musa remarked.
Kenya’s last-gasp efforts to secure slots for the Olympic Games went up in flames after all its six boxers crashed out at Bangkok’s Indoor Haurmark Stadium.
The nation’s contingent included captain Boniface Mogunde, Edwin Okong’o, Amina Martha, Elizabeth Andiego, and Friza Anyango who crashed out in the preliminary rounds.
The development means that will miss out on the premier quadrennial global games for the first time in six decades.
Kenya has not bagged a medal in boxing since 1988 when Robert Napunyi Wangila (welterweight) and Chris Sande (middleweight) won gold and bronze medals respectively at the Seoul Olympics.
The East African nation previously made itself felt on the global front with the late Philip Waruinge, winning a bronze medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and silver in the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Welterweight Dick Murunga tucked away the bronze at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. During the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Kenya bagged a bronze medal through Ibrahim Bilali (lightweight).