By Otniel Hembapu
WINDHOEK – Secretary-General of the Namibia Boxing Federation (NBF), Joe Kaperu is a bitter man and has come out guns blazing to condemn the shocking omission of boxer Mathias Hamunyela from the Namibian boxing team going to this year’s Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow, Scotland later this month.
In an interview with New Era Sports yesterday, Kaperu pulled no punches and went on to blast the Namibia National Olympic Committee (NOC) for their somewhat unclear accreditation policies for athletes and team officials, saying it’s high time sports authorities do away with their usual shameless interference in internal affairs of various federations.
The long-serving boxing administrator said the NBF submitted five names to be considered for the Commonwealth Games but the NNOC made it their prerogative to cut down the boxing delegation to only four boxers, thus dropping Mathias Hamunyela because they apparently feel he only won a bronze medal at the recent African Boxing Cup.
According to Kaperu, the rules and regulations of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) clearly states that if a boxer happens to win either a gold, silver or bronze medals at a continental competition, than he is eligible to be selected for international competitions such at the Commonwealth Games, and in this particular case, Hamunyela won a bronze medal at the African Cup and should have thus been included in the traveling entourage.
An evidently fuming Kaperu also queried as to why the federation is only being allowed to send one coach to accommodate the four boxers, saying such practices are antithesis of standard rules and regulations of boxing.
“How can one coach accompany four boxers for heaven’s sake? At any competition, locally or internationally, AIBA rules states clearly that any boxing delegation consisting of four boxers should be accompanied by at least two coaches. Naturally, there should be one coach accompanying one boxer to the ring while the second coach stays in the backrooms to warm-up the other boxers ahead of their fights,” he agitatedly stated.
“We even spoke to the Secretary of the NNOC, Joan Smith and she could not even provide us with a suitable explanation to why they omitted one of the boxers. All she said was that they apparently got a new directive from the Commonwealth Games Committee (CGC) to limit the number of athletes and officials of the traveling contingent but how can the CGC interfere with the Federations accreditation and selection criteria? It doesn’t make any sense to me,” fumed Kaperu.
Queried to shed more light on the debacle, NOC’s Joan Smith distanced herself from the accusations and said the NOC have not received any formal complaint in writing and verbally from the boxing federation. “I’m not aware of any complaints from the federation. Accreditation dates are closed, so it’s really too late to entertain such grievances”