March 29, 2024

Kickboxers fail to make championships meet

THE Papua New Guinea Kickboxing Association is not saying why its contingent is not taking part in the 2012 World Kickboxing Championships, in Croatia.

The association had selected 37 fighters and eight officials to represent the country and the fighters are unhappy at missing out.

With the championship’s opening ceremony on Monday and bouts already into day 2, the fate of our fighters is sealed.

There are 1,500 fighters from 76 countries at the championships, which started on Monday and ends on Saturday.

PNG’s contingent of fighters, which would have been the largest group there, had begun preparations for the meet from the start of the year.

The finalization of plans were made after the National Kickboxing Championships held in Port Moresby in March where the final squad was named and a strategy for raising funds was conceived by the association.

Association national coordinator Micah Oki, who took over the role from Stanley Nandex in March, said there would be a series of fund-raising drives to raise the K200,000 needed to send the fighters to Croatia.

Association secretary-general Eddie Kavina said in May each fighter would have to raise K3,000, a fee that is said to have been met by most fighters.

At the start of June, the 37 fighters went into an intensive training camp based at the PNG IPA campus to hone their skills before leaving for Croatia.

Attempts to contact Nandex, Kavina and Oki for comment were unsuccessful.

Via – The National

Franklin Dathu Kolma

Franklin is a journalist with the country's oldest newspaper.

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