A LACK of concentration and a time change may have cost Namibia an additional boxing quota at the the forthcoming Olympic Games in London.
That is the ‘unacceptable excuse’ given by Ambrosius Kandjii, who was head of Namibia’s delegation to the just ended Africa Olympic qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco – where only two of the countries six fighters at the event qualified for the global spectacle while another never even entered the ring. Olympic hopeful Simon Johannes arrived late for his first round flyweight bout and was subsequently disqualified from the tournament – a situation reminiscent of heavyweight Tobias Munihango missing the 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships by three hours.Then team manager Kelly Nghixulifwa blamed the late arrival, which cost Munihango a spot at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, on visa problems, which he says delayed their travel for two days.However Kandjii said a change in local Moroccan time last week meant that the boxer’s fight was advanced an hour earlier – a detail that none of the team officials managed to pick up.’I must accept that there was a lack of concentration from me and rest of the technical team. We have accepted that this is an unacceptable error. To the public and other people it is an unacceptable excuse but it was just a human error that we did not realise that time changed from Saturday (April 28) to Sunday,’ Kandjii told reporters at a reception for the boxers in Windhoek yesterday.’He was the last fighter scheduled to fight for Namibia that day and we thought it would be wise to leave him at the hotel to rest.’Later when we realised the mistake, we rushed back to the hotel but when we returned we were late by an hour,’ Kandjii said further.’We cannot pass judgement until we receive the full report from the Boxing Federation. We understand that something happened. I’m not saying we are proud of it but we expect a full explanation from the boxing federation,’ said Deputy Minister of Sport Pohamba Shifeta. While middleweight Mujandjae Kasuto and bantamweight Jonas Matheus earned the right to represent Namibia, the country’s most trusted amateur fighters – captain Jafet Uutoni and his deputy Tobias Munihango – crashed out spectacularly in the opening round. Light flyweight Uutoni was knocked out in the first round, while super heavyweight Tobias Munihango lost on points – both to Egyptian opponents. The sixth boxer Jeremia Nakathila also lost his 60kg lightweight quarter-final fight on points.’Some would say you have not done well but to those of us in the sport fraternity who understand the requirements, you have done well,’ said Shifeta.
