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KUDAKWASHE Chiwandire, the female boxer fighting Zambia’s Catherine Phiri for the WBC super-bantamweight world title on February 26, will have to endure a long trip to Lusaka by bus afterfailing to get a sponsor for an air ticket, writes Gilbert Munetsi.

Traditionally, boxers who travel out of the country for such big assignments fly.

Chiwandire’s manager/coach, Clyde Musonda, yesterday said though there had been engagements and promises for air tickets for Chiwandirer and him, follow-ups had yielded no result, leaving road travel the only option.

The duo are scheduled to leave Zimbabwe for Zambia on February 21 for the biggest boxing match yet to be undertaken by a Zimbabwean.

Reliable sources said through the engagement of the office of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, a top official in the Ministry of Sports, Youth, Arts and Recreation had been tasked to look into the matter, but repeated follow-up calls had yielded no result.

A meeting with the named official is said to have been held at Deputy Health Minister John Mangwiro’s office where an undertaking was made to assist Chiwandire with favourable travel arrangements, but the plans now seem to have hit a brickwall.

“We have managed to buy return bus tickets because that is what we can afford,” a distraught Musonda said.

Chiwandire’s case is the same with that of Charles Manyuchi who, when he successfully defended his WBC silver title against Colombian Devis Cesares in 2016, returned from Zambia by bus, with the title in his bag. With noone to welcome him, he had to put up in a lodge in the Avenues red Zone area in Harare.

A day after arrival, Ministerial officials hastily  organised a press conference where they jostled for press photographs with him.