▪️ Khadija Mardi and Pita Kabeji steal the show in the exciting one-week AFBC African Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships
▪️ Congolese Boxing Federation President General Luyoyo and team confound sceptics by staging a highly successful tournament_ _backed by the government_
Excitement, drama, tears and tension marked this year’s AFBC African Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships as Morocco’s charismatic world heavyweight champion Khadija Mardi and DR Congo’s Pita Kabeji (pictured) stole the show in the one-week highly successful tournament at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa, DR Congo.
Mardi and Kabeji joined Kenya’s most accomplished boxer, the late Philip Waruinge as the only boxers so far to win three consecutive gold medals in the Africa Championships. They both won gold in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and Waruinge did it 1964, 1966 and 1968.
While Mardi and Kabeji were the main actors, several other boxers entertained fans with some superb boxing that underlined the Africa’s natural boxing potential. The tournament was further given a big boost by the noisy drum-beating ndombolo dancing fans of DR Congo whose wildly enthusiastic cheering was the icing on the cake without whom the whole event would have lacked the much needed flavour. Kudos to the DR Congo fans I salute you all.
In addition to Mardi and Kabeji’s achievement, among other boxers who made the event a huge success with their intelligent boxing include Senegal’s France-based artistic heavyweight Karamba Kebe, Namibia’s crafty featherweight Tryagain Ndevelo, DR Congo’s lethal welterweight Brigitte Mbabi, Kenya’s rejuvenated light-middleweight Boniface Mogunde, Cameroon’s busy bee flyweight Martial Wouang, DR Congo’s daring flyweight Nyembo Gisele, Morocco’s showboating bantamweight Widad Bertal and compatriot sweet baby-faced world bronze medallist Yasmeen Mouttaki both of whom their second consecutive gold medals, remarkable boxing by middleweights Alphonse Mendy of Senegal and Morocco’s finalist Yassine El Ouarz, Ethiopia’s lightweight Abubeker Redwan, Burundi’s light-middleweight Nestor Nduwarugira, Kenya’s light-heavyweight Liz Andiego, DR Congo’s middleweight champion David Tshama and South Africa’s ring technician John Paul Masamba who finally won a gold medal in the Africa Championships.
Among other boxers who upgraded to gold medals from silver and bronze in previous Africa Championships include Cameroon’s Martial Wouang, Nyembo Gisele, Boniface Mogunde, Karamba Kebe, Brigitte Mbabi and Abdelhaq Nadir.
Some of the newcomers who excelled were DR Congo’s Ruth Yanfu who has taken over the featherweight berth from former Africa champion Marcelat Sakobi now a pro boxer, Morocco’s gold-winning trio of flyweight Bensayar Issam, super heavyweight Younes Bouhdid and lightweight Zouhair Fadel, Mozambican bantamweight Manuel Banguine and Kenya’s super heavyweight Clinton Macharia.
Banguine, who is among the boxers being groomed for future big international tournaments by the Mozambican federation, was indeed one of the revelations of the Kinshasa event, punching his way to the bantamweight finals in his international debut and lost to DR Congo’s Bakora Kolongo.
“We’re very impressed by Banguine’s performamce , it’s a wonderful start on our project to inject new blood in the national team,” said the President of Mozambique Boxing Federation Gabriel Junior,
“In the new Olympic cycle, we decided to involve new players on the international stage with emerging stars, four boxers represented us in Kinshasa, and we won two medals and our first-time boxer Danguine in the final.”
Besides Mardi and Kabeji’s three consecutive gold medals, the other most significant achievement was by Senegal’s heavyweight Karamba Kebe who won the country’s first gold medal in 26 years since 1998 in Algiers when lightweight Mamadou Sow outpointed South Africa’s Elvis Makama to win the first gold medal for the West African nation. Kenya’s Boniface Mogunde was also the toast of his team winning the first gold in seven years since 2017 when lightweight Nick Okoth won gold in the Africa Championships in Congo Brazzaville.
Karamba’s points victory in the finals over DR Congo’s 2022 Africa Championships Landry Matete cemented the friendship of AFBC board members Anta Gueye from Senegal and Morocco’s Zoubida Wissam who was rooting for Kebe. Victory for DR Congo would have given them 10 gold medals each with the defending champions Morocco but following Kebe’s win, Morocco remained on top of DR Congo with 10 gold and nine gold medals for DRC who finished in the second position again like it happened last year in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Hats off to Congolese Boxing Federation under the leadership of indefatigable President Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo and his team in particular his work deputy secretary-general Pierre Ambongi for organising an excellent tournament despite the short notice they had of staging Africa’s premier boxing event. AFBC was not left behind either in playing their part. Particularly productive was their Competitions Committee Chairman Solomon Kargbo and his deputy Lukelo Willilo who is also the head of Communication Department which played a major role in the success of the Kinshasa tournament through marketing the event on social media outlets including IBA’s website.
Gamewise, African boxers did not disappoint. We watched some tactical boxing from among others Namibia’s Tryagain Ndevelo who would have been my candidate for the Best Boxer award. He entered the Africa Championships for the first time and struck gold displaying a lot of tact and intelligence in his boxing. What the African boxers lack are regular competitions and financial support from their respective governments to enable them enter international tournaments for exposure. National Federations should also not be over-dependant on their governments for financial support. There’s need for more initiative from them to source for their own funding given the fact that most African governments are financially over-burdened by other priorities such as education and health.
That’s why the DR Congo government under President Felix Tshisekedi should be lauded for the overwhelming support they extended to the Congolese Boxing Federation to stage one of the best ever Africa Championships that was however an anti-climax with no prize money at stake for boxers, an issue AFBC have to seriously look into to avoid depending solely on IBA to provide prize money.
✍🏼 AFBC Communications
