Sports
BLAISE Ude, the Enugu State boxing coach, on Thursday said the state has started the recruitment of boxers in preparation for the 2019 National Youth Games (NYG) coming up in September.
Ude told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu that no fewer than 25 students who are boxers had already been trained.
“We have about 25 students who want to make names for themselves in boxing and many of them are good.
“They have been training under my tutelage for the past two years now.
“They used to come for training in the evenings whenever schools are in session and in the mornings outside school sessions,’’ he said.
Ude said he and his colleagues decided to pick boxers from the secondary schools in order to get those within the real age bracket needed to represent the state well.
“We are doing this to get good boxers at that age, because the purpose of participating in the NYG is not mainly to be the champions but for exposure.
“From what we have seen so far, there are lots of good boxers among the students but they just needed guidance and we are providing for them,” he said.
The state boxing coach said the boxers however need good equipment for their trainings so that they would get more accustomed to using such.
“Equipment like gloves, canvas, among others, are needed to boost their morale in training before the main business,” he said.
Ude also said the boxers were in dire need of camping towards the competition period for maximum training and concentration.
“As coaches, we are doing our routine job and we will want the state’s sports ministry to compliment it with approval for camping,” he said.
The coach nonetheless said he was optimistic of getting good boxers out of the students before the competition at the NYG begins in September at Ilorin.
BE
– Aug. 01, 2019 17:10 GMT
Tags: coach says Enugu has began recruiting boxers for 2019 NYG
