Commonwealth Games: Coach Lauds Nigeria’ s Participation In Boxing

D’Tigers in one of their emcounters with Ivory Coast

The Head Coach of the Lagos State Boxing Association, Wasiu Bisiriyu, has lauded the inclusion of boxing in the sports Nigeria would participate in at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Ministry of Sports recently named shooting, taekwondo, judo, athletics, wrestling and boxing as the sports in which Nigeria has a comparative advantage.

Bisiriyu, while reviewing the association’s activities in 2013, told newsmen in Lagos that boxing deserved the recognition and inclusion.

“We have an array of amateur boxers in my association that the country can rely on.

“It would have been an effort in futility after grooming boxers to a dependable state and they are not allow to participate in a big event like the Commonwealth Games,” the coach said.

Bisiriyu, who led the state’s boxers to the London invitational tournament in October, said that the tournament positively impacted on the boxers.

“We also have an assemblage of elite boxers discovered in the state’s monthly boxing competition; so, it is a good thing that most of them will be at the Games.

“Last August, the Nigeria Boxing Federation organised a national open championship in Abuja which was successful and applauded by the National Sports Commission (NSC),” he noted.

According to him, boxing strived in 2013.

“Moreover, boxing is one of the sports that Nigeria is identified with at the Commonwealth Games.

‘I am confident that with proper motivation, Nigeria will do better at the Games to make up for the World Cup loss last October in Kazakhstan, where it won no medal,’’ he said.