New coaches for Bombers soon

Accra, July 28, GNA - The Black Bombers, the national amateur boxing team will soon have new technical personnel in the saddle to lift the sport from the doldrums.

In an interview with the GNA Sports, Mr Eddie Blay, chairman of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) said it had become imperative to inject a new dose of technical expertise into the camp of the boxers because the present technical team was bereft of the right techniques to turn out champions.

He said having continuously watched the team at training, he drew the conclusion that the biggest problem facing the team was technical and that might have been responsible for the low voltage of the Bombers in recent time.

Ghana won only a bronze medal at the All Africa Games in Abuja in 2003 and none of her boxers qualified to box at the Athens Olympics, even after participating in a low class African eliminator in Botswana. The GABA boss said he was making moves to form a formidable technical team to be headed by someone he only referred to as Miguel, a Cuban coach who would be assisted by tested former boxers.

He said the Ghanaian assistants would under study the Cuban, who would also conduct refresher courses for Ghanaian coaches at the CK Gyamfi Sports College at Winneba.

"Our trainers have to learn how to train and it is only by doing so that they can impart the right knowledge and techniques to the boys and prepare them to distinguish themselves and redefine Ghana's status in international amateur boxing."

Mr Blay affirmed that he took office at a time when Ghana's amateur boxing was 'dead' but he had resolved to resurrect it without fear or favour to anybody.

There has been agitation among former boxers to have the technical team of the Bombers reshuffled to get on board some of their kind to train the national team.

They contend that the current head coach had never boxed and was not well equipped to train the young boxers adequately. The GABA boss corroborated the position of the former boxers when he concluded, "a person who had never boxed before cannot imagine the pain his boxer is going through."