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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls 

FIFTY boxers are expected in Victoria Falls on Saturday for a national boxing tournament to be held at Shoestrings.

There will be 25 bouts in the juniors, youth and elite categories at the tournament being hosted by Victoria Falls Boxing Academy.

This is the first activity by the academy since the five nation invitational tournament held in December 2019, which was graced by World Boxing Federation middleweight champion Charles Manyuchi at Kingdom Hotel Great Enclosure before the lockdown in March last year.

One of the tournament organisers Hannah Brightman said the aim of the event is to assess boxers and help build a strong team to represent Zimbabwe at the Youth Olympics.

“We have not had any tournament since December 2019 due to Covid-19 and we are hoping that our tournament on the 1st of May will spark excitement and reignite interest among our boys to keep fit and to start getting ready for the Youth Olympics. There will be 50 boxers, with seven of them from Victoria Falls,” said Brightman.

She said plans are underway for a three nation tournament at the Kingdom Hotel on May 25.

The bout pitting Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe’s young sensation Prince Urengwa (13) and an opponent from Gweru will be one of the highlights of the tournament.

“We had no activity during lockdown and that affected boxers in terms of training and also the boxing academy in terms of subscriptions for gym membership. All of our programmes were affected, but we are grateful to the sponsors.

“Through training we encourage values such as discipline, motivation and hard work, and the goal is to keep our boys and other youths out of trouble and give them hope for a brighter future,” Brightman said. – @ncubeleon