Alasana Bah made these remarks at the association’s elective congress organised recently at The Gambia Olympic House.
Bah acknowledged that the boxing association has been struggling for years in the country and it needs to have equal share like other sports.
“The association has struggled on its own to be recognized internationally after years of trials. We are now attending the annual AGMs and paying our dues on our own. Boxing is as important as any other sports. We have been going for championship and bringing trophies to the country therefore, we need to build the capacity of the boxers and coaches to raise the standard of boxing.” he stressed.
The club, he added, has no indoor training center and facilities to ensure proper training for boxers especially for kids and women, saying government should render support to boxing.
For his part, Ebrima Secka, Program Manager National Sports Council, clarified that The Gambia has one major source of income when it comes to sport and that’s the central government.
“We do not have other areas sponsoring sport. We have almost 30 national sports association awards in the country and our budgets are always limited. Thus, we do our best to support in ways that we can and boxing has never been neglected even though it’s little but we are giving. Our support is not sidelined to only football or other sports but all sports is our priority.” he stated.
He urged the association to concentrate on performance and stage fundraisings to generate income for themselves and make funding easy.
Ousman Abou Wanda, second vice president of The Gambia National Olympic Committee, congratulated the new elected executive and assured the association of the Olympic House's support and building the capacity of the boxers and coaches to make sure they meet international standards.
