Ten more African boxers fall by the wayside
Cape Verde’s Africa welterweight champion Ivanusa Moreira (pictured), DR Congo’s Brigitte Mbabi and the Ivorian Sedia Sanogo powered their way to the last 16 in the ongoing final Paris Olympic Games qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday (May 29).
Moreira outpointed Mexico’s Gricelda Duran 5-0. Mandela Cup champion Mbabi beat Ukraine’s Anastasiia Chernokolenko 4-0. Ivorian Sedia Sanogo of Ivory Coast won her fight 4-1 against Nilufar Boboyorova of Tajikistan. All three advance together to the 66KG ladies’ round of 16.
The Olympic dream of ten other African boxers was shattered after losing their fights.
They are DR Congo’s US-based super-heavyweight Gilbert Kabamba who lost 3-2 to Columbia’s Willys Mendoza.
Keddy Agnes of the Seychelles lost to Iran’s Rouzbeh Safari. Kenya’s welter Friza Anyango went down 5-0 to Emillie Sonvico of France.
Nigeria’s Ifeanyi Onyekwere was defeated by Ukraine’s Dmytro Lovchynskyi. Mauritius’ Joseph Kennedy St-Pierre lost to Croatia’s Luka Pratjacic. Ghana’s Joseph Commey was shown the door by Emilio Garcia of the USA.
In women’s 66 kg, Nigerian Blessing Oraekwe was eliminated on points 5:0 by Armenian Ani Hovsepyan.
In men’s 63.5 kg, Abdelhaq Nadir of Morocco lost by disqualification to Moldovan Alexandru Paraschiv and in men’s 71 kg, Mozambican Tiago Osorio Muxanga was beaten 5-0 by Lewis Richardson of Great Britain.
The total number of African boxers eliminated has swelled to 56 so far and 17 still remaining in the bumpy Road to France.
The earth is hard in Bangkok for the African boxers.
✍🏼 AFBC Communications