New league carries SA’s amateur hopes

IT’S been 57 years since South Africa won Olympic boxing medals, and adding to this woe, Rio 2016 was the first Olympic Games since 1912 to feature no local fighters.

But outgoing national amateur boxing coach Johan Prinsloo is confident the sport at home is turning the corner.

He is now focusing his efforts on his Transnet club in Pretoria North as well as in Gauteng, but he believes the wave of new talented fighters is coming through.

“It’s exciting times,” he said, referring to the new boxing league which goes online from Friday.

A coastal stream of five provinces, including the Free State, will fight off against each other while an inland group will begin on March 10.

The winners will face off in a final, with the champions earning spots on the national team, SA National Boxing Organisation (Sanabo) president Andile Mofu said.

They will represent South Africa at the African championships, a qualifying tournament for the world championships in Germany from August 25 to September 3.

Mofu also wants to organise meaningful international friendlies for his boxers to hone their skills.

“Experience is the biggest thing,” said Prinsloo. “We lost a lot of boxers to the professionals because we weren’t keeping them active. “This league is just what we needed.” Prinsloo and Nathi Hlatshwayo are being FRIENDLIES: SA National Boxing Organisation president Andile Mofu replaced by Hans Britz and Mlandeli Mnqibisa, who were at the under-20 Regional 5 Games in Angola last month where South African boxers won five medals, including four gold.

“They have worked with the age-group boxers who are now going into the elites, so this system of rotating coaches is a good thing,” said Prinsloo.

But he warned that coaches needed to back the new national mentors. “We coaches need to support them. We must make sure our boxers are fit for national duty.”

That didn’t always happen in the past. “It was frustrating. They’d come up for a training camp and they were not fit and were overweight.”

Prinsloo is one of SA’s 25 internationally accredited coaches, but none have the highest level-three grading.

At top international competitions, nations must have at least one three-star coach — that means South Africa must borrow a qualified coach to accompany their own trainers in the corner. But Mofu was unfazed about that, saying Sanabo’s priority was uplifting the quality of boxers as quickly as possible.