A 10-man Nigerian boxing team on Wednesday night left Lagos for the United Kingdom on a training tour ahead of the London 2012 Olympics scheduled to begin on July 23.The three Olympics-bound pugilists are Muideen Akanji and Lukman Lawal, who are to compete in the 75kg and 81kg respectively and Edith Agu-Ogoke, the only woman boxer from Nigeria, who qualified in the middleweight class at the just-concluded AIBA women's world boxing championships in China.Four boxers are also on the trip as sparring trainers which include Efetobor Apochi, Victor Adebayo, Nosa Nehiari and Millicent Ugochukwu.The team is to be handled by coach Tony Konyegwachie and Idika Nsofor, who is the Technical Adviser of the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF).Secretary of the Boxing Federation, Dr Patrick Uwagbale, in a chat with Tribunesports in Lagos, before the team's departure expressed confidence that the boxers would live up to expectations at the Games proper."Nigerians should hope for the best at London 2012 Olympics. I'm happy that the boxers are being given this opportunity to train abroad before the Games and they are excited about it.'Going to London now will help a lot because it will enable our boxers to first acclimatise and also train with modern facilities to meet the challenges ahead.'"I make bold to say that the three boxers we are going to parade at the Games are experienced boxers. They have attended a number of international championships before and I have the belief that they would put their wealth of experience to bear on the Olympics and come out with something," said Uwagbale, who is the leader of the delegation. It would be recalled that Lawal, a light heavyweight boxer is rich in terms of experience having won a silver medal at the the 2011 Maputo All Africa Games and also got to the quarter-final at the last Commonwealth Games in India, while Akanji, won the bronze at Maputo 2011 in the 75kg (middleweight) class.Meanwhile, seven Nigerian weightlifters had on Monday, left Lagos for Germany on a training tour ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.The only two qualifiers for the Olympics are Felix Ekpo (77kg) in the male category and Mariam Usman (+75kg) in the female category.The five other lifters on the trip include Benedict Uloko, Obioma Okoli, Augustina Nwokolo, Chinenye Fidelis and Tijani AbdulKareem.Speaking before the team's departure, President of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Chimdi Ejiogu, said that, the lifters would avail themselves of the great opportunity of training with world-calls facilities in Germany, adding that, such exposure would boost their performance in future competitions.
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