Lowveld dominates NASH provincial boxing tourney

Schools from the Lowveld dominated a boxing tournament organised by the National Association of Secondary School Heads (NASH) to select a team that will represent Masvingo at the National Youth Games that will be held in Mashonaland West in August this year.

Masvingo Mirror reported that the tournament was held at Chinorumba Secondary School in Zaka on Saturday.

There were interesting fights in which boxers exhibited good fighting skills. In the first bout, Prosper Mazambara won 2-1 by a split judges' decision in the Under 40kg category after beating Mcdonald Hungwe of Mufakose.

Another tightly contested bout was between seasoned boxers Emmanuel Chapfudze of Hippo High versus Sherpherd Majama of Mufakose in the Light Weight category. Chapfudze won through a unanimous 3-0 decision by judges.

The National Welterweight champion Freeman Mabvongwe (Chinorumba High) squared off with the National Middle Weight Champion Admire Moyo Terry (Goss High) in a Catch Weight fight. The fight was so bruising and on two occasions Moyo was knocked down through foul hits by Mabvongwe.

 Despite both boxers being hard punchers they had to endure terrific combinations which landed on prime target zones. Moyo was good at ducking and lay backs as his defence while Mabvongwe used side stepping, paring and blocking. It was a wonderful exhibition of boxing skills and the bout resulted in a draw.

Masvingo Provincial Education Officer responsible for sport Fredrick Matavikwa hailed the boxing tournament and said it is critical for the Ministry of Education to cover all sporting disciplines so that all talents can be exposed. He encouraged all schools in the province to take boxing seriously as a sport.

"I was impressed by this tournament, as education sector we should introduce all sporting disciplines that`s why we introduced boxing in our schools. There are opportunities which pupils should be exposed to especially in rural areas where there is a lot of untapped talent. We encouraged schools to take boxing seriously as a sport and we hope to have more schools competing next year," said Matavikwa.

Masvingo Boxing Federation President Dannie Majekwana said the motive of bringing the tournament to Zaka was to help in identifying untapped talent so that the province can build a stronger team for the National Youth Games. He said the sport was always dominated by schools from the Lowveld but there is need to spread it to rural setups. He thanked NASH for supporting the idea of having boxing in schools and encouraged teachers to adopt the sport and give children a good mentality towards sport.

In Hippo Valley and Triangle boxing was seriously taken as a sport many years ago and the two produced boxers like Charles Manyuchi, Trade Nkomoazabo, Tanaka Vhudzijena, Moses Rusimati, Shadreck Misongwe, Haeber Chijaka, Juliet Sibanda, Agmela Bonyani, Freeman Mabvongwe and Trymore Chiweshe