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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The national boxing team, the Bombers have stepped up preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in their non-residential camp at National Council of Sports Lugogo.
The Bomber’s team comprises Shadir Musa Bwogi, David Ssemujju and Catherine Nanziri the first Uganda woman boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games.
The Bombers head coach, Twaibu Mayanja, says that they called up the team for non-residential camp training to kickoff serious preparations.
He says that the team has little time to shape the boxers compared to their competitors who entered training Camps earlier this year.
Mayanja also says that they will hold some friendly games with players from Zambia within three months to expose the players before their final departure for Tokyo Japan for the games.
Team Captain Shadir Musa Bwogi says that the training is so far good and he is doing his role to unite his teammates whom he expects to put a good performance.
Catherine Nanziri says she the non-residential training is so effective compared to the normal training sessions, adding that she is focused on regaining her fitness levels.
David Semujju, who plays middleweight, says that he has been training individually and researching about others boxer before the non-residential training camp.
The team received a boost of Shillings 2 million from African Chocolate Company to enhance its training. This is in addition to Shillings 54 million they received from ABSA Bank to cater for the players preparing for the Olympic Games.
The Bombers had initially only secured one player “Shadir Musa Bwogi” for the Tokyo Olympics 2021 who defeated Ghana’s Jessie Lartey in the welterweight African Olympic Boxing Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal.
However, Nanziri, a flyweight fighter and Semujju middleweight secured their tickets for the games courtesy of the latest International Olympic Committee IOC Boxing Task Force arrangement of qualifying Fifty-three quota places basing on rankings. Ssemuju is joint-fifth in the world men’s middleweight (75kg) and second in Africa, with 300 points.
He qualified because African top seed Younes Nemouchi of Algeria, who defeated him in the semifinal in Dakar, had already got his ticket to Tokyo while Nanziri ranks fourth on the continent with 200 points.
She, therefore, qualified as she came number four in Africa after Rabab Cheddar of Morocco, Roumaysa Boulam of Algeria and Christine Ongare of Kenya who beat her in the box off.
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