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Uganda: Bombers Have a Chance
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New Vision (Kampala)
COLUMN
23 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
James Bakama
Kampala
UGANDA faces a tough Olympic qualification test this week at Africa's last competition to select the continent's remaining 29 boxers for the Beijing Olympic Games. Ronald Serugo, Edward Kakembo, Aldina Muzei, Ismael Muwendo and Meddie Lubega form the Bombers' team that will battle fighters from over 30 nations in Namibia.
It's the first time that Uganda finds herself entangled in a last-ditch attempt since the qualifiers were introduced in 1988. So, do the Bombers have what it takes to punch their way to Beijing?
Cuban coach Jimenez Gonzalez in his first remarks about our standards last month rightly rated our skill levels as very poor. UABF boss Roger Ddungu, who has single-handedly funded the Bombers' foreign budget since 2007, as a result stopped seeing the Namibia qualifier as a priority.
But three weeks of the Cuban's training coupled with a strong urge by the boxers to disprove heavy criticism that they weren't up to the task, have had magical results. The boxers confess that the Gonzalez's drills make their club coaches and previous national tacticians seem like a joke.
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Muwendo, fresh from five months of intensive training in some of the best US gyms, provided the best measure of the Cuban. True, Muwendo was vastly improved but in the home boys drilled in a sub-standard Lugogo facility, he found fighters who made him look like a novice.
Thank God, Ddungu also acknowledged the improvement and is fully funding the Namibia trip. In Windhoek, a lot could however depend on the draw.
Let's also pray there's no repeat of the Algeria All Africa Games daylight refereeing robberies. This is where the Idi Amin knockout formula will come in handy!
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