Paris 2024 Olympics: 11 African boxers out, 12 still in contention

A good day in the office for African boxers with three of them advancing to the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games boxing tournament.

Morocco’s African Games bantamweight champion Widad Bertal was the first one through to the quarters followed by Zambia’s African Games flyweight champion Patrick Chinyemba and Cape Verde’s Africa bronze medallist David Pina (pictured) who trades leather with Chinyemba in the quarter-finals on Friday, August 2.

While it would have been better to see both meet in the later stages of the Paris Olympic Games boxing event, the beauty of their quarter-final bout is that Africa has already scooped its first medal since one of them is assured of a place in the semi-finals.

On July 31, Morocco’s world heavyweight champion Khadija Mardi, Mozambican Commonwealth Games light-middleweight silver medallist Tiago Muxanga and Egypt’s gold medallist in the Africa Olympic qualifiers Omar Elawady will step through the ropes in pre-quarters bouts.

A total of 11 boxers have so far been eliminated from the competition. They are Egyptian bantamweight Yomna Ayyad, Nigeria’s heavyweight Adam Olaore, Zambia’s flyweight Margret Tembo, Morocco’s flyweight Yasmine Mouttaki, Nigeria’s lightweight Cynthia Ogunsemilore, Algeria’s lightweight Hadjila Khelif, Algeria’s light-welterweight Jugurtha Ait Bekka, Algeria’s super-heavyweight Mourad Kadi, DR Congo’s featherweight Marcelat Sakobi, Mali’s Fatoumata Camara and Egypt’s super-heavyweight Abdelrahman Orabi.

Sakobi, Fatoumata and Orabi are the latest casualties. They all lost on Tuesday, July 30.

Sakobi, the reigning Africa Elite Championships featherweight gold medallist, put up a remarkable performance against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova who squeezed 3-2 victory, Fatoumata was beaten 5-0 by Turkey’s featherweight Esra Yildiz while Oraby was also defeated 5-0 by Azerbaijan’s Murad Allaverdiyev at super-heavyweight.

The five African boxers who have so far won their fights are Tiago Muxanga and Alcinda Dos Santos both of Mozambique, Morocco’s Widad Bertal, Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba and Cape Verde’s David Pina.

Those yet to fight are Algeria’s flyweight Roumaysa Boualam, Tunisia’s featherweight Khouloud Hlimi, female welterweights Imane Khelif of Algeria, Cape Verde’s Ivanusa Moreira and DR Congo’s Brigitte Mbabi, Egypt’s light-middleweight Omar Elawady and Morocco’s heavyweight Khadija Mardi.

Credit: AFBC Communications