Optimism high despite Kenya’s false start in the IBA Women’s World Championships

Kenya’s national boxing team - Hit Squad - endured a tough day in the ring on Thursday afternoon and the better part of Friday’s morning sessions as the curtains lifted at the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India.

Three of Kenya’s boxers answering the bell in Thursday’s action all lost, stunning the Kenyan boxing hopefuls that anticipated at least a win on the day.

Debutant Pauline Chege was the first Kenyan in action, where she lost to Guatemala’s Reyes Moreno on a majority points decision (5-0), a similar fate that fell on flyweight boxer Ann Wanjiru as she stumbled to Mozambican Bagao Helena.

In the only closely contested bout for the Kenyan’s, bantam weight Amina Martha put up a brave fight against her opponent - Gomez Landaeta of Venezuela before the latter being awarded a 4-to-1 victory on the judges’ call.

That performance and the ‘shocking result’ afterward, seemed to base much of what team coach Musa Benjamin had to tell the rest of the team at the end of Day One action.

“Today’s performance was 90 percent correct,” Musa said. “We pushed when we needed to push and gave the opponent no room to run to. I always look at the performance before the points and the fact is we did things right today.”

Using Amina Martha’s performance as an example, Musa added that “that was such a great performance.”

“Points aside, let that performance be what we expect from everyone remaining. Let not the overall results dampen our spirits. No. We can do it.”

With three Kenyan boxers in action on Friday, the worrying trend persisted in the first two sessions of the day as lightweight boxer Lucy Stacy Ayoma lost on points to Moldova’s Chiper Cristina, with only one judge - Evans David (Australia) - handing the Kenyan a 29-28 rounds advantage.

Munuhe laments delayed arrival as three Kenyan boxers feature in Day One of IBA World Championships

The big surprise was yet to come in Session 3A as Kenyan Olympian and Africa Zone Three medalist Elizabeth Akinyi lost to Lin Chien Yu of Taipei on a unanimous judges call (0-5) to take the number of Hit Squad boxers already bundled out of the lucrative championships to five.

In Friday’s evening session, Africa Zone Three gold medalist Teresia Wanjiru will hope to earn Kenyans their first victory as she takes on homegirl Chopra Shashi in the lightweight category at the KD Jadhav Indoor Arena.