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EPISODE: Episode 6
Join us on our on-going exploration of the Olympics to be held in Tokyo 2021, featuring Christian from the Friday Night Panel, and the route to the ring. Watch TalkinFight weekdays at 12, 4, 7, and 8:30pm EST on YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live @Olympic @IOC Media @torchrelay @AIBA
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#boxer #boxing #boxingtalkshow
Transcribed:
Hello boxing fans around the world.
Thank you once again for joining us on another episode of talking fight joined with me today is christian from the friday night panel and we’re going to be discussing the olympics, specifically boxing at the olympics, this july, hopefully uh.
What have you found out from us for us today, christian uh, well with respect to the games themselves? Graham uh, it looks like the organizers are still uh.
You know, they’re still forging ahead and now they’re looking to uh they’re, looking to put some contingencies in place.
So athletes at the tokyo olympics, who do come down with minor symptoms of cove at 19, could be isolated in a hotel lined up by local organizers of the games.
So they’re setting aside a space for this now uh the japanese news agency kyoto on sunday, said organizers, are working to secure up to 300 hotel rooms near the athletes village.
The agency cited, you know unnamed officials with quote unquote knowledge of the plan, as usual, uh rooms would be for athletes and staff who do not need to be hospitalized uh.
The measure would, under this measure, underlines the risk of trying to hold an olympics during and a paralympics for that matter during a pandemic.
Tokyo also began today to employ some tougher measures to curb the rapid spread of the new variant of the virus in the tokyo region.
And it’s going to allow tokyo’s governor to impose shorter opening hours for bars and restaurants, as well as mandate punishments and award compensation to those who apply.
So it looks like there’s.
At least one hotels found a way to recoup some of the funds that they’re projected to lose uh due to the ban on overseas fans.
So you know at least one somebody’s making a little bit of money here, someone’s figuring it out, it’s good to see other than that.
It’S all what we expected tougher measures out of tokyo and uh.
You know – hopefully those are due to lift on may 31st.
So those are due to be in place over the course of the next month and hopefully the situation there improves between now and then and hopefully we’re not looking at any lockdown restrictions by the time the games themselves get started because, of course, that will only serve To complicate this mess, even farther, which already has so many moving parts but looking back to the world of boxing, because you know it’s a little bit more interesting for us and the world of amateur boxing and checking in now with our friends in africa, uganda is Sending their first female fighter to the olympics ever cool yeah, so we got a bit of a so.
We got a little bit of a story better, give a little background here.
Three years ago, catherine nanziri was a novice boxer, but you know in three months time now she will be the first ugandan woman to box at the olympics.
That is, if all goes to plan, of course, so the flyweight from the a and b boxing club has received the news that she and middleweight david sesamuju will join bombers.
Captain musa shadier on the trip to tokyo at for the olympics, welterweight shidir, was the only ugandan uh who was able to punch his ticket for the olympics at the african qualifier in dakar, senegal uh that past february 2020.
naziri was quoted as saying i am humbled That of all women, i was the first to reach the olympics.
God works in mysterious ways.
Women’S boxing in uganda is a story of two decades with little success.
Um.
Actually i don’t know.
If that’s, i don’t know, if that’s entirely true, it’s been a two decades marked with successes that have been unable they’ve been unable to hold momentum.
In my personal opinion, uh, like at the inaugural, for example, for at the inaugural african women’s championship in cairo back in 2001, irene semakula and mariam nakuwago both took home gold medals and then virtually vanished from the scene in 2003, uh hawadaku joined, went pro had 12 Professional matches and then likewise just you know, basically disappeared overnight.
In 2014, helen baleke and diana tulinabo maureen, ashinab, ashamabo and diane atline went on to the women’s world boxing championships in jeju korea uh, then likewise, virtually faded into oblivion.
Until bolecki returned with the win of bronze at the 2019 african games in morocco, i feel like he missed the tokyo 2020 trials in dakar, but five women competed for uganda, uh three had first round losses and two were stopped in the semi-finals.
Eventually, one of them would naziri that is, would get a ticket to tokyo.
The first ugandan woman ever to do so, as mentioned uh, so nazir first tried boxing back in 2015 at the agree memorial college in bueno maguaya on the outskirts of kampala.
But after her o level, she ended up quitting boxing to pursue vocational studies dang.
You know i focused on a job for living.
Three years later, she resumed boxing and was able to take home a silver at the 2018 national intermediates under her first coach, says kanjako, who then switched her to the amb club and she settled and ended up having to settle for silver, the 2019 national open as University of payne’s grace took home the gold.
I love it.
The university of pain, uh, grayson and kenja took home gold in the flyweight women’s youth category that that particular year, so at the national olympic trials in january 2020, naziri defeated highly rated teddy nekamuli in a 3-2 about to take the flyweight ticket to the african qualifiers.
In dakar, now she was quoted as saying this is a little this little stat.
She was quoted as saying opponents and fans doubt my abilities says during my road workout strangers, provoke me saying things like even if i’m dead drunk, you can’t beat me, you know it’s not the most accepting of societies when it comes to seeing women in sport, let Alone, women in combative sport, but according to her she says that just pushes me to work harder and prove the doubters wrong.
She also attributes her progress, of course, to her coaches, uh club management and training mates such as welterweight stanley, muguwa, so african qualifiers in the call was missouri’s first international event.
First, international tournament, uh and her only in victory in dakar, k, mccain, senator senegal’s khadija tirma.
Sorry tamara who was a home favorite at the time and a top contender um, sorry, both in sorry, some stuck in my throat there.
Graham thank you sorry so, both of these fighters, where we leave off there, so yes, khadijah tamira.
So both these fighters were untested up until this point in the tournament having both of them receive, buys uh to take them straight to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Uh nazir was able to hold her own and win a marginal 3-2 decision in that in that first bout now she failed to duplicate that uh that success, though in the semi-final against algeria’s remasa, which you know, of course, that narrowed her uh path to tokyo.
Her coach, uh, sesum jaku, explains she made a mistake of going all out without guarding herself and that’s a weakness that we’re going to try to fight missouri got a second chance, but uh again she lost to kenya’s christine angare in the only women’s uh box off.
Third place box off at that tournament.
As a side note, uh kenya’s christina on christine angari she’s, definitely going to be a name.
You guys are going to want to keep and uh keep in the back your head for when this olympic tournament starts, she is going to be one to watch for sure missouri recalled.
You know.
I felt really sad and disappointed getting that close and missing missing out on the opportunity, so just when naziria and the others who failed to secure a ticket to japan at dakar, uh contemplated the very last qualifying hope in france.
We all know that, so this story covet 19 strikes the olympic call, as well as the limits, as well as the qualifiers get postponed to now this year, 2021 uh and then last month the ioc drops the bombshell that qualifiers uh the world qualifier in paris is Cancelled and as all of you guys know, 53 slots are then allotted according to ranking based around the world, so therein comes naziris luck.
Uganda’S olympic committee announced that naziri and samuju had qualified for the tokyo games based on their rankings with 200 points.
Naziri ranks 12th in the world in women’s flyweight and fourth on the continent, but she qualified, because the top three had already qualified via the african olympic qualifiers.
So naziri is currently training at her home club, the amb and will be joining the national training camp.
In may so, you know we of course, uh wish her all the best of luck.
Uh, you know.
Hopefully, she uh is able to take a take home.
A medal in this tournament be the first woman from uganda to box in the olympics and maybe be the first one to take on my medal too fair enough.
I see we have our british cohorts online with us uh.
You might have seen that as well.
While you were speaking, oh yeah, commenting uh on the fraser clerk and uh, the british team, who i believe is uh held up right now.
Aren’T they i don’t know what held up.
I mean they’re under travel restrictions at the moment.
Yeah is there? Is there a big thing, so some of these you we would have been seeing british fighters at things like uh, strania and boxum, and some of these and the whatever the ones took place in budapest a little while ago.
I can’t remember the name of that.
One off the top my head, but uh we would have been seeing uh, definitely uh, seeing british fighters at these tournaments were not for the current travel restrictions, but things are getting a little better.
I believe uh they’re reopening uh pubs in the uk this week.
So, that’s that’s.
Usually that’s like the groundhog shadow for the for the for the brits.
So they come out.
The pubs are open.
That means you know six more weeks.
We’Re done it’s good news.
It’S good news! That’S you can you can set your watch by that? Fair enough um does that wrap you up uh, that is what’s been going on over the weekend so again.
Fortunately, no new massive venue changes, personnel changes, horrifying scandals or things as such, coming out of the games themselves, and i said just uh, you know hopefully a bit of a feel-good story there about uh christine nanziri yeah.
No, that’s awesome.
That’S that’s really good! For the african nations uh to putting forward their female boxers, this is great news.
Actually, i’m looking forward to them.
I really am it’s gon na be gon na, be a great competition um.
Well, if that’s everything then uh, i thank you for that update and, as do the viewers uh hello to our friends over in england and around the world, and i will see you tomorrow, christian i’ll, be here.
Thank you very much.
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