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“Thanks to the Boxing Federation of Kazakhstan, I ended up in Morocco. I was offered several countries that were looking for coaches for their national teams,” Yerik Algabek says in an interview with Forbes.kz. “I chose Morocco because I have been following this national team for a long time. I always thought, if they had a good school, the Moroccans could become one of the strongest teams in the world. Now I'm trying to implement my ideas. In a word, I challenged myself.”
Yerik Algabek left for the Rabbat city, capital of Morocco, in September 2022, on the eve of the African Boxing Championship. Then the national team won gold medals in men's and women's boxing, which confirmed the opinion of the Kazakh coach about the potential of Moroccan boxers.
“The Moroccans, of course, are very strong physically, they have a very strong but imprecise punch,” says Yerik. “They are very hardy — this is the first time I have seen athletes recover so quickly after injuries and heavy loads. In a word, the country has everything for boxing, but there are no great results. Since the advent of boxing in Morocco, they have won four bronze medals from the Olympic Games, one Moroccan became a world champion in men's boxing, and recently one woman became a world champion in women's boxing. They won several silver and bronze medals from the World Championships. In excellent conditions for boxing, these are insignificant results.”
Erik Algabek and the champion of the Arab Games Azuy Imad
Under the contract, Algabek is responsible for men's, women's and youth boxing in the country. We have to live on a sports base, since training camps are held often. The Kazakh coach does not have an interpreter, and he does not need one. The coach learned Arabic in one year. Answering the question about salary, he says that he earns twice as much as in Kazakhstan.
“When I was appointed as a head coach of the women's national team, the salary was only 360 thousand tenge or $800. Then I secured a pay rise, both for the team and the coaches,” he recalls.
Yerik Algabek headed the Kazakhstan women's boxing team for just more than two years — from May 2019 to September 2021. After the unsuccessful Olympic Games in Tokyo, things have changed in Kazakhstan boxing. “The new managers of the federation have replaced the entire coaching staff not only in the national team, but also in the youth, juvenile and junior national teams in both men's and women's boxing,” he explains.
Yerik Algabek himself has been in boxing since he was 10 years old. He wanted to play football, but attended a boxing section for a month — and stayed. He trained with honored coach Felix Tsoi - first as an athlete, and then they began to train boxers together.
“I started coaching in 2004, and I have been working in women's boxing since 2007. From 2011 to 2016, I was a senior coach of the youth and juvenile national teams of Kazakhstan in women's boxing. In 2015, we went to the World Youth and Junior Championships in Taipei with 22 boxers and won 18 various medals,” the coach proudly says. “It is the members of the youth team of those years that now win medals for our main team.”
Then they won eight gold medals at the Asian Championship in 2021, which Algabek recalls as his main achievement, “I am the first coach, whose apprentice has reached a high level in women's professional boxing. It was Firuza Sharipova.”
In general, our Yerik assesses Kazakhstan boxing as promising. Athletes have good technique, there is high competition in the team, “In some weights, two world champions or a champion and a finalist of the world championships compete, I'm not even talking about the world champions among youth and juvenile.”
However, the situation in world boxing is not rosy at all, the coach believes.
“Recently, there have been very difficult relations between the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the IBA (International Boxing Association). There is even a suggestion to exclude boxing from the Olympic Games program. I do not understand, because the very first sports at the Olympics are boxing, wrestling and athletics. How is it possible to remove a sport that is at the heart of the Olympic movement?” he wonders.
There are more and more people engaged in boxing, a record 107 countries participated in the last World Championship in Tashkent, Yerik reminded. Women's boxing is developing rapidly, already catching up with men's in terms of the number of participants in competitions.
“22 athletes will participate in women's boxing in the weight category up to 50 kilograms at the Olympics, and 16 athletes will participate in men's boxing in the weight category up to 51 kilograms. In my opinion, it’s a reverse discrimination,” he smiles.
Yerik Algabek (at the centre) with Moroccan athletes. On the left is Samguli Sulaiman, the champion of the Arab Games
The Moroccan national team participates in many tournaments: the Mediterranean Games, the Arab Games, and the African Championship. There are 20 athletes in the team now, but Algabek has already been given the go-ahead to expand the team.
“I will increase and overhaul the team. The local federation understands that if they meet me halfway, they will see progress. It is necessary to ensure competition within the team, there will be no growth without competition,” he says confidentially. As the coach says, Morocco has plenty to choose from, “The school has not been set, and there is a lot of work to do.”
In the second half of July 2023, Morocco will hold the final part of the championship, then the national team will fly to the African Championship in Cameroon, and in September there will be a licensed tournament for the Olympic Games.
“Then we will assess the work done over the year,” Algabek continues. “Wherever I work, I set the highest bar. In boxing, the goal is gold medals from all championships and, of course, Olympic gold. I hope that Morocco will receive its first ever gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris.”
A series of interviews with our countrypeople who have achieved outstanding success abroad. In collaboration with Forbes Kazakhstan