By Samson Ateka
The national boxing team for the All Africa Games has began scoring exercises using International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba) approved computer.
Coach George Gichuki has since invited Aiba class referee, Mwangi "Don King" Muthoga, to the training camp to assist in the drill. Muthoga, who lives in Nakuru, is the only Kenyan referee to officiate at the Algeria Games.
"He is well versed with the system and it is encouraging to see the interest among team members," Muthoga said.
Computer scoring punches count only when they hit the target with force, but three of the judges must press the scoring gadgets at the same time. Computer scoring has been Kenya’s biggest undoing at international level.
Interestingly, the Amateur Boxing Association of Kenya has only one set of the gadgets donated to them at the Johannesburg Games in1999 by Aiba. Since then, they have relied mostly on borrowed ones.
"We are working hand in hand with Muthoga to ensure the boxers are trained well for the games," Gichuki said.
Suleiman Bilali, captain of the boxing team, has experience in computer scoring system compared to the other six boxers. Gichuki said Bilali would share his knowledge with the rest of the boxers.
Bilali, the Africa light-flyweight champion, said at the Kasarani camp that he was eyeing an Olympic gold in Beijing if he successfully defends his title in Algeria.
"The computer scoring drill is also a major boost to the team," the 29-year old boxer said.
Bilali has won eight Kenya Open titles since joining the national team in 1997. He was ranked fifth by Aiba after being eliminated 10-10 in the quarter-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics by the gold winner Lozano Munoz.
Other veteran boxers in Gichuki’s team include two Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Joshua Ndere (llight-heavy) of Armed Forces Amateur Boxing Association and Kenya Police’s James Menya. Rayton Okwiri, 20, who was first capped during the recent Great Lakes Championship in Mwanza, Tanzania, last month is the youngest. David Munyasia and Kenya Prisons’ Bernard Ngumba, who had a long layoff since playing semi-pro boxing in Qatar in 2004, are back to serious business.
Munyasia is Kenya’s flag bearer in the featherweight class while Ngumba is in the flyweight. Okwiri said he was ready and at pains to make his presence felt at the continental games. Okwiri won a gold medal at last December’s Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa A Zone 5 junior championships in Nairobi.
