Boxing-Julie gets three-month suspension |02 February 2008

Hard puncher Julie decided to stay behind instead of leaving for Algiers, Algeria with the rest of the Seychelles team to participate in an African Olympic qualifier (from January 22 to February 1).

Sports Nation learned that Julie, who had handed in his resignation when he decided not to compete in Algiers, made a U-turn on his decision by presenting a letter in which he said he was willing to return to boxing.

In this same letter which he handed to the SABF on Friday January 25, Julie said he would return to boxing on certain conditions. One of those conditions is that he trains with both Seychellois coach Roland Raforme and Cuban coach Pedro Pacheco. The fact that Julie trains twice daily, he wanted to have one session with Raforme and the other with Pacheco.

Reached by telephone, SABF chairman Kenneth Nalletamby said that “Kitson cannot decide with which coach to train. We’ve recruited a professional coach from Cuba and we cannot ask someone else to do the coaching job. Also no boxer will give the federation orders as to who should be their coaches.”

It is to note that Julie also intentionally did not participate in the King’s Cup International Boxing Tournament in Kampala, Uganda, in 2005.

The 24-year-old is the winner of Seychelles’ only African Championship gold medal so far (in 2004 in Botswana in the 64-kg division) earning himself a qualification spot at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. At the Seventh IOIG in 2007, he won the 69-kg gold medal.
It is not clear what will happen with Julie’s Olympic Solidarity scholarship now that he will miss the next African Olympic qualifier in Namibia in March.

G. G.