Box Girls Kenya calls for introduction of women’s boxing league in Kenya
Box Girls Kenya, a community-based boxing
organization in Nairobi, has called for the establishment of a women’s boxing
league in Kenya to help in talent development and advancement of the sport.
Speaking earlier this week at Kariobangi Social Hall
during the unveiling of Box Girls Kenya as the Tujiamini Gold award winners for
Nairobi region to a tune of Ksh 500,000, organization founder Analo Anjere
praised their gaming partners for supporting women’s boxing in the country and
urged the relevant authorities to follow suit.
“We need a well-structured and exclusive Women’s
Boxing League run entirely by the women to support enrolment and
competitiveness in the sport through regular tournaments. This will help build up
our amateur and professional rankings to give our female boxers an edge
regionally and globally,” said Analo.
Anjere explained further that the Tujiamini award,
will go into upgrading their gym and training facilities located in Kariobangi
area of Embakasi North Constituency in Nairobi.
According to Sarah Achieng, a professional boxer and
the sports administrator at Box Girls Kenya, in spite of a growing interest and
talent in Kenya, women boxing remains critically under developed in comparison
to its male counterpart.
“Regular scheduled fights are crucial for the growth
and development of boxing. Female boxers in particular, need consistent
competition to maximise their full potential. I urge the public to strongly
support women sports because we have the talent and requisite competitive
spirit to succeed,” said Achieng.
Lyle Asiligwa, director at DBA Africa that have
partnered with SportPesa in the Tujiamini Initiative acknowledged the immense
talent in young women looking for advancement opportunities in the community.
“The Nairobi region’s Tujiamini submissions
displayed a high level of competitiveness and Box Girls Kenya stood out as a
key driver of sporting talent and positive change in the community. Their blend
of amateur and professional boxing is proving to be high-yielding and we look
forward to seeing more exploits from the club,” he said.
Box Girls Kenya which focuses on the growth of female
boxers in the grassroots, began in 2007 with just two women aspiring to box and
excel in the sport.
It has to date trained and mentored over 4,000 girls
in boxing and self defence classes and hopes to ultimately expand to include
other sports and non-sports activities to keep empowering girls beyond the
boxing ring.
Tujiamini aims to nurture and support sports and
sports related talent to help improve the quality of sport in the grassroots
and community level.
The initiative now heads to South Rift region in
September. Young people have been urged to enroll in large numbers as the
initiative nears completion in November.
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