Foor m—esǦsiaoš™earrTthhar„eiasto
MBABANE – Eswatini boxer Thabiso Dlamini is safe in Russia.
Dlamini is currently in Russia, a country that is presently at war with Ukraine, to train after getting a sponsorship of 12 months with the help of International Boxing Association (IBA) President Uma Kremlev, who facilitated the sponsorship alongside EOCGA Board member Pearl Dlamini for the opportunity of training in Russia.
Boxer Thabiso, who was part of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, mentioned that the 12-month training in Russia currently underway is helping him.
“The setup here in Russia will help me a lot because there are professional boxers doing the same programme with me and they help by telling me my strengths and showing me how capable I am. One of the coaches happy with my progress though I would have to mention that training is intense, for example sparring this side is intense and they make you do sparring with different people finding out that you will need to change with up to 10 people with different boxing styles and this is something I was concerned about in Eswatini that I need the kind of exposure,” he said.
Challenge
When asked how safe Russia was since there has been wars, Thabiso mentioned that where he stayed in Moscow was safe and only highlighted the weather as his only challenge, mentioning that Russia was very cold.
Thabiso thanked emaSwati for the support at home and further said that he was the only liSwati speaking English and highlighted that his coach doesn’t understand English at times, thus at times got helped by a translator but assured that the boxing language makes them to be able to communicate.
“I promise that I will work hard, my time here is the beginning of many good things to come and I hope I’ll be able to motivate other boxers back home that they must work very hard anything is possible. Let’s continue working hard and my stay here is no longer about me but the whole country and the African continent,” he said.
Dlamini represented Eswatini in the Tokyo Olympics early this year but was unsuccessful in his weight division.