A total of 235 boxers from 41 countries will today start battling it out for the 18 slots in the Africa Olympic qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal.
Men’s featherweight and lightweight lead with 29 boxers each to trade leather for only seven weight classes allocated by the IOC. Seven male and 11 female boxers will make it from Africa in the continental qualifiers.
Welterweight follows with 27 boxers, flyweight 21, middleweight and heavyweight 20 boxers each and super-heavy 17. In all 152 male boxers have been registered.
Women’s flyweight leads with 20 boxers, featherweight 15, bantam and lightweight 14 each, welter 12 and middleweight eight making it a total of 83 female boxers entered for the one-week event.
The 41 participating countries are : Algeria (12 boxers), Benin (1), Botswana (5), Burkina Faso (2), Burundi (1), Cameroon (6), Cape Verde (8), Central African Republic (5), Congo Brazzaville (1), DR Congo (12), Egypt (11), Equatorial Guinea (3), Eswatini (3), Ethiopia (6), Gabon (5), Gambia (2), Ghana (11), Guinea Bissau (2), Guinea Conakry (2), Ivory Coast (7, Kenya (12), Lesotho (4), Liberia (1), Libya (5), Mali (4), Mauritius (2), Morocco (13), Mozambique (10), Namibia (4), Nigeria (9), Senegal (12), Seychelles (2), Sierra Leone (4), South Africa (7), South Sudan (4), Sudan (1), Tanzania (5), Togo (4), Tunisia (10), Uganda (5), Zambia (8)
Senegal and Morocco top with 13 boxers each followed by Algeria, Kenya, Ghana and DR Congo 12 boxers each.
