{Rutikanga Ferdinand, one of the founders of Boxing in Rwanda has said he is very sad to see people who are lessening the value of boxing and calls the Ministry responsible for sports to develop new strategies to save the game that is in the way leading to its collapse.}
In exclusive Interview with IGIHE, Rutikanga said that he has put more energy to take this game to every good level but today some people are taking Rwandan Boxing to a worse state than ever before.
Rutikanga reveals more serious issues that are affecting the Boxing one of them being the problem of handover between leaders who completed their term and those appointed recently.
He said “When I see how the game goes into a difficult situation I get saddened by the energy I invested to develop and modernize the Boxing in Rwanda.”
Born 1956, Rutikanga launched the Boxing in 1970 but, as he says, many people were considering its players as bandits which he says “It hindered its move due to negative thoughts that people had towards the Boxing”
He says “When I came to Kigali in 1973 it was in December, they treated us as robbers or bandits. At the time the Minister was Rwagafirita. We explained them more about the game and later they started knowing that the game was also present in many other counties.”
He has given examples of players like Idi Amin, who was the President of Uganda and the Late Pope Jean Paul II as well as Nelson Mandela, the Former South African Anti-Apartheid President who died last Year.
Rutikanga said at the time Rwandans got to know about Boxing thanks to Journalists like Kabendera Shinani and Viateur Kalinda who were radio Rwanda’s sport presenters.
Today Rukanga is asking MINISPOC to invest more in Boxing to enable more Rwandan players to be among those who win different international tournaments.
More on this article contact: {{angedelavictoire@igihe.com}}
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