Bertrand Mendouga was elected president of the African Amateur Boxing Confederation (AFBC) in July 2022. As the first African Championships organized since 2017 approach, the Cameroonian takes stock of the situation of the AFBC and his sport on the continent. Maintenance.
RFI: Bertrand Mendouga, the African Championships organized from September 9 to 18 in Mozambique are the first for five years. Why such a long wait between Brazzaville 2017 and Maputo 2022?
Bertrand Mendouga: Indeed, the last African Championships took place in Brazzaville, in 2017. No one, apart from the outgoing president of the AFBC, can explain this long sleep… The 2022 edition marks our desire to move our continent . I remind you that I have only been elected for less than two months. I believe it was time to move on to another form of governance in Africa…
Why did you choose Mozambique which is not the best known African country in amateur boxing?
The choice of Mozambique reflects our desire to be present in all the countries of the continent. The last time that this country held a competition of this scale dates back to 2011. It was 11 years ago, during the African Games…
Ghana is a great boxing country, with four medals at the Olympic Games in particular. Will the AFBC get involved in the Accra 2023 All Africa Games boxing tournament?
For the African Games in Accra, the AFBC will be present for the organization and management of our sport, during this edition. It is a natural mission.
What are your ambitions for boxers on the continent at the next Olympic Games?
These next Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, in 2024. Therefore, our goal is to do better than in 2021 [une médaille de bronze du Ghanéen Samuel Takyi, Ndlr]. And this result will go through the regular holding of competitions on the continental level and serious preparation through well-organized training camps.
Since 2004 and Egypt’s three medals, there has been a decline in Africa’s results in Olympic boxing tournaments. The countries of the continent rarely win more than one bronze medal in total. How do you explain it? And how to remedy this situation?
The explanation for the poor results of our boxers at the Olympic Games is very simple: absence of competitions, poor preparation, lack of means for the national federations to participate in competitions in France, for example. So many factors that reduce the possibilities of African athletes.
The AFBC has not been spared from the turmoil of recent years. How to guarantee that there will be no more crises within the African amateur boxing confederation?
No written guarantee can be provided except that since 2006, this is the first time that Africans have had the latitude to elect their own president. Strengthened by the situations that have marked our continent during this troubled period, my personal commitment and that of my board should enable us to lead the Africa boat with great confidence.
What exactly are your ambitions for the AFBC as newly elected president?
Through my previous answers, you will have guessed my action program which reflects the ambition which is mine: to hold a calendar of competitions until May 31, 2024, to organize training seminars for boxing officials, to raise the level of coaches through the regular organization of certification seminars, setting up training camps for the approach of major sporting events, both continental and abroad… In fact, there is a huge amount of work to do to restore our continent to its letters nobility…
Olympic boxing, a discipline in crisis
Will boxing be on the program at the Los Angeles Olympics? If the Noble Art will still be in Paris in 2024, will this also be the case in 2028, as this discipline crosses a governance crisis since 2016 ? For the Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even substituted for the International Amateur Boxing Federation (AIBA, which became IBA at the end of 2021). The IOC had suspended its official recognition of the IBA in June 2019, following several years of conflicts at the head of the body and controversies over refereeing at major competitions (including the 2016 Olympics). A suspension still relevant.
The African confederation itself was not spared, with in particular the suspension by the AIBA of its ex-president, the Togolese Kelani Baylor. The Moroccan mohamed mustahsane, acting president of AIBA in 2019 and 2020, had ensured the transition to the AFBC in recent years. ” It is obvious that the crisis of our international association will have had repercussions on Africa, in particular through instability at the level of its head.deplores Bertrand Mendougawhich has seen four presidents since 2016. From there, it is difficult to set up a coherent program “.