by The Papua New Guinea Amateur Boxing Union (PNGABU) is walking the tightrope to bring home medals at the forthcoming Pacific Games.
This is due to the lack of high quality sparring hampered by the lack of sponsorship from the regular backers and the wider corporate sector to get behind this sport that traditionally rakes in a host of gold medals.
With four months remaining the clocking is ticking over for PNGABU president Dr Gideon Kendino who is sweating over the lack of corporate sponsors to support a comprehensive lead up preparation.
Dr Kendino raised the white flag to voice his concern that PNG is running behind the eight-ball to facilitate.
It is disappointing that calls for sponsorship have fallen on deaf ears, with most of the sponsors including several top boxers pulling out to follow pro-boxing.
This has affected our training camp of the squad selected following the national trials earlier this year to prepare for an internal trial to confirm final selection this month in Port Moresby.
The national coaches will then decide on how many boxers to each weight category and provide a preliminary ranking or determine which one is the top seed.Dr Kendino
We still have six from Bougainville and one a heavyweight from Manus yet to join the camp due to funding constraints.
He said they all know that the final selection of the team will be made this month and those in Port Moresby are honing in on their skills under the national coach in preparation for that.
Dr Kendino expects the final trial to be competitive.
Beyond that when the final team is named the squad will then go for further training via the assistance from the PNG Olympic Committee to go to Philippines and Australia for high performance training.
Kendino
That’s good but we need real time competition which we cannot afford at this point in time despite receiving several invitations to the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tahiti.
Dr Kendino said if PNG wants to be realistic about equaling or bettering the eight gold medal haul in 2015 in Port Moresby, then corporate support is needed to support the cause.
Our fighters need regular top level competition which is out there…we just don’t have the financial capacity to facilitate that for our boxers.
Kendino
For the use of the facilities at the Sir John Guise Stadium, Dr Kendino acknowledged PNGSF CEO Albert Veratau.
National coach Mark Keto further qualified that since he took the role in 2015, the team generally lifts in their performance off the back of strong lead-ups.
We need all the lead-ups available.
Keto
As we are expecting to send a big team…all of them are medal hopes.
He further highlighted that the Pacific Games in Honiara will be a two-prong event with several of the fighters competing in the Olympic qualifying event as well.
