Manyuchi sets up academy

By The Standard | Dec. 4, 2017 | 2 Min read

BOXING superstar, Charles Manyuchi is setting up a sports academy in Chivhu, and construction of a multi-purpose sporting facility has commenced.

BY HENRY MHARA

The former World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver welterweight champion said the aim of setting up the Charles Manyuchi Sports Academy, is to unearth talents in different sporting codes, and turn them into professionals.

“The academy will obviously be inclined mostly towards boxing because that is the sport that made me who I am,” Manyuchi told NewsDaySport.

“But we will have other sport codes like netball, volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis, squash and other indoor sports like chess and pool. This idea came after a realisation that most youngsters are not groomed from their early stages of their career and when they turn professional, they tend to struggle because most of the things that they would be expected to do are learnt at institutions like academies.”

He added: “We want to promote sport, to groom the future stars. I have had an advantage of working in a professional setup with Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions and I know how things work. So this is the idea, which I have taken and want to implement in the country. It hurts me when for example a boxer is invited for fight and he comes from home and goes straight into a ring without even going into camp. We need to do things properly, in a professional way.”

Manyuchi is targeting to recruit six male and two female talented boxers as a start. “I’m attending a national boxing championships competition in Chiredzi this weekend, where I will identify some boxers for the academy.”

The academy is being constructed on the 4,5 hectares of land donated to him by the Chivhu town council after he successfully defended the WBC title in 2015. One of the academy directors, Prosper Chibaya is currently in South Africa to get equipment for the academy.