Bombers: Who is to blame?

Uganda’s already thin squad at the 1st World Olympic Qualifiers in Busto Arsizio, Italy suffered the least expected loss after shafick Mawanda was eliminated by means of a walkover against Singapore’s Teo Wei Xuan on Sunday evening.

The youngster failed to report to the ring in time for the Men's 51kg Round of 64 Preliminaries, almost ending his chances of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This was Mawanda’s second shot at qualification after impressing on his international debut before losing in the quarterfinals of the African Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal last September.

Meanwhile Yusuf Nkobeza also lost to Romania’s Andrei Aradoaie 5-0 in the Men’s 80kg Round of 64 Preliminaries yesterday, leaving team captain Joshua Tukamuhebwa and Emily Nakalema, the only woman on the team, in contention for Paris.

But who is to blame for Mawanda’s misfortune? Uganda Boxing Federation boss Moses Muhangi, attributed it to lack of a team manager.

“The absence of officials and team management for the Bombers in the Italy Olympics qualifiers start to bite, hence Uganda Bombers first loss as Mawanda Shafic loses by walkover...Just because he failed to reach the competition venue on time. Hard luck team Uganda,” Muhangi wrote in the federation’s WhatsApp media group Sunday evening.

But two coaches for four boxers is almost a luxury, by Ugandan standards. And Bombers’ head coach Twaibu Mayanja, blamed the incident on their late arrival in Busto Arsizio. Due to visa issues, they had a stop in Rwanda, which was never in plan, before they reached Italy on Saturday.

“The mistake was neither the boxer’s nor the coaches’. We had travel disruptions and we arrived late in Italy,” Mayanja, who is assisted by Nicholas Buule, told Daily Monitor via WhatsApp.

“So we missed the technical meeting. And after the weigh-in in the morning, we boarded the bus back to the hotel, waiting for our bout at 1pm (3pm Ugandan Time). By 12:30pm we were ready for the bus to the arena. After a long wait the drivers told us that the buses were to ferry only those fighting in the second session, but those in the first session (like Mawanda) were supposed to stay at the arena. That’s communication we missed for not attending the technical meeting.”

According to International Boxing Association (IBA) technical rules, a technical meeting is where the technical delegate presents competition details and other relevant content to team officials. And team officials mean the members of the team delegation, except the boxers.

Rule 6.4 stipulates that the team manager and the team doctor of each team delegation must attend the mandatory sport entries check, but in their absence, the head coach “must replace them.”

That is why Mawanda’s plight was avoidable—with or without a team manager—if only Team Uganda had arrived in time.

But such confusion was inevitable. The Uganda Olympic Committee, on behalf of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit and the National Council of Sports did a shoddy job in the preps. There were no selection trials, no preparatory training and lots of visa and travel delays.

Olympic qualifiers 

Results 

Men's 51kg Round of 64

Teo Wei Xuan WO. Shafick Mawanda

Men's 80kg Round of 64

Andrei Aradoaie 5-0 Yusuf Nkobeza (80kg)

Ugandan squad 

Shafick Mawanda (51kg), Joshua Tukamuhebwa (63.5kg), Emily Nakalema (66kg), Yusuf Nkobeza (80kg) Twaib Mayanja (head coach), Nicholas Buule (assistant coach)