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By Allieu Bockarie
The executive of the Sierra Leone Boxing Association last presented their sole boxer Bakarr Bakish Kanu (60kg) who won silver medal in the AFBC Zone 2 Championship lightweight 60kg Men’s category in Senegal.
Bakarr, because of lack of enough fund went to Senegal alone without a coach and an official of the association to represent his country, Sierra Leone. Despite constrains he underwent, Bakarr fought onto the final stage of the lightweight category. Bakarr qualified to the semi-final stage of the lightweight category after defeating his Cape Verdean counterpart Marcio Monterio by a knockout in the second round of the bout. Bakarr was to later bout with Mary Corr from Gambia in the semi-final stage who withdrew from the fight for personal reasons.
Bakarr lost his final bout to his Malian counterpart by a split decision by the judges. Back home the executive of the Sierra Leone Boxing Association headed by the boxing president Solomon Kargbo presented the boxer and the Silver medal to the executive of the National Olympic Committee at the NOC Headquarters at Howe Street in Freetown.
Presenting the boxer, the Secretary General of the association Alhaji Komba told the executive of NOC that they were at their office to present the boxer, the silver medal and thank them for the help they rendered to the boxer.
Komba went on that they would have won more laurels if the funds were available to go with more boxers. He cited an example of the championship which they hosted in Sierra Leone before the one in Senegal.
Komba said they won 3 gold medals and one silver. He said to do more than what they did at home, they camped the boxers with good training facilities but unfortunately, the government did not fund them to go with their boxers.
Komba appealed to the NOC executive to provide high-performance training in preparation for the Olympic Games in France.
In his response, NOC President Prince Sualley thanked the executive for their relentless effort to develop the sport. He assured them that the NOC executive will do their level best with the little they have to render help to them when the need arises.
He said in the case of high-performance training, the executive needs to write and apply for it and they in turn will forward the letter to the Olympic Solidarity for approval.
He encouraged the young boxer to keep up the good performance. Prince admonished the young boxer to forget about whatever constraint he underwent and let the future be his challenge. In the end, the boxer presented the silver medal to the NOC President who in return dressed the boxer with the medal.
