Five boxers win their bouts with nine sent packing.
2nd World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Thailand from May 24 to June 2, 2024
A shaky start for Africa as five boxers move on and nine are eliminated during the opening day of the final Paris Olympic Games boxing qualifiers in Bangkok on May 24.
Mozambican African Games featherweight silver medallist Armando Sigauque, Zambia’s African Games silver medallist Mwengo Mwale, DR Congo’s Mandela Cup welterweight champion Brigitte Mbabi and Algeria’s Oussama Mordjane romped through to the round of 32 while Morocco’s African Games silver medallist Yassine El Ouarz moved to the round of 64. Still far from the quota places but a step ahead made.
Sigauque, a gold medallist at the 2022 Africa Elite Championships, beat Papua New Guinea’s Allan Oaike 5-0, Mwale got a walkover against Fiji’s Davule Jone, Mbabi stopped Morocco’s Saida Lahmidi in the second round of their welterweight bout, light-middleweight Yassine beat Austria’s Marcel Meinl and Mordjane stopped Walter Samoi of Laos in the second round.
The nine African boxers who have been bundled out of the competition are Uganda’s Germany-based professional Muzamiru Kakande who lost 5-0 to Cuba’s light-middleweight Jorge Cuellar, Mali’s featherweight Abdoul Bathily went down to Tajikistan’s Asror Vokhidov, Libya’s featherweight Ahmed Alkoum lost to Iran’s Daniyal Shahbakhsh, Morocco’s female welterweight Saida Lahmidi beaten by DRC’s Brigitte Mbabi, Namibia’s featherweight Tryagain Ndevelo lost 4-1 to Tae Bom of North Korea, Botswana’s featherweight George Molwantwa beaten 5-0 by Frenchman Samuel Kristohurry, Morocco’s featherweight Imad Azoui lost to Armenia’s Artur Bazeyan, Ghana’s world quarter-finalist Mohamed Amadu stopped in round two by Jose Luis Santos of Dominican Republic and Liberia’s featherweight Jeroson Garduward, whom we had earlier not mentioned was in action, beaten 5-0 by Kosovo’s Bashkim Bajoku.
Africa entered 73 boxers from 25 countries in the Bangkok event. With nine boxers shown the door, 64 are left in the battle for the remaining 51 slots- 28 for men and 23 for women – in the weeklong event which has attracted a total of 578 boxers from 132 countries and refugee team.
So far 18 African boxers have qualified for the Paris Olympics. They booked their tickets during the Africa qualifiers last year in Dakar, Senegal.
Algeria leads with five qualifiers, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria three each. DR Congo, Zambia, Mozambique and Tunisia have one each. No boxer from East Africa has qualified.
Here are the 18 qualifiers in Dakar 2023 :
Women
50kg: Roumaysa Boualam (ALG), Yasmine Mouttaki (MAR)
54kg: Widad Bertal (MAR), Yomna Ayyad (EGY)
57kg: Khouloud Hlimi (TUN), Marcelat Sakobi Matshu (COD)
60kg: Hadjila Khelif (ALG), Cynthia Ogunsemilore (NGR)
66kg: Imane Khelif (ALG), Alcinda Dos Santos (MOZ)
75kg: Khadija Mardi (MAR)
Men
51kg: Patrick Chinyemba (ZAM)
57kg: Joshua Omole (NGR)
63.5kg: Jugurtha Ait Beka (ALG)
71kg: Elawad Elawady (EGY)
80kg: Orabi Abdelgawwad (EGY)
92kg: Adam Olaore (NGR)
92+kg: Mourad Kadi (ALG)
✍🏼 AFBC Communications
