Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) has opened a training camp in Lagos,to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games African Qualification Tournament next month.
The qualifying event is due to take place in the Senegalese capital of Dakar from September 6 to 16.
A total of 14 Nigerian boxers from seven weight categories are set to prepare for the tournament at the National Stadium in Lagos.
The NBF is determined to succeed at the event after failing to qualify a single fighter for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic boxing tournaments.
“We have a mandate to ensure that we are in the Olympics this time around after we missed out on the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan,” said the governing body’s secretary general Dapo Akinyele.
“We have gathered our best athletes for this camp and we expect results from them, this time around we must put all machinery in place to ensure qualification.
“Nigeria is not lacking in terms of talents, we have them in abundance; not forgetting that we have history in boxing with medals in boxing events at the Olympics.
“We will do all it takes to ensure that we succeed this time, but first thing is that we want to qualify for the Olympics first.”
Nigeria finished seventh overall at the most recent Africa Boxing Championships in Cameroon with one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.
Coach Anthony Konyegwechie claimed it was a good showing considering the athletes had minimal preparation time but is now expecting more in Dakar, especially with a second camp due to take place in the United Kingdom after the Lagos meet.
“We are training well ahead of the qualifiers and the boxers are all responding well,” said Konyegwechie.
“The spirit in the team is high.
“We do have morning and evening sessions.
“The morning session starts from 7am to 9am while the evening session starts at 4pm to 6pm.
“We have two camps one here in Nigeria and another one in the UK.”
Boxing is Nigeria’s third most-successful Olympic sport as it has amassed three silvers and three bronze medals.
However, the most recent of those came from David Izonritei and Richard Igbineghu who both finished as runners-up at Barcelona 1992.
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