BFK names provisional team for twin African Championship events

Following the three-day National Olympic qualifiers held at the end of last week, the Boxing Federation of Kenya has named a strong squad of up to 24 boxers that will be in the national team camp expected to battle for spots towards representing the country in next year’s Paris games.

The group, which consists of 12 winners from Saturday’s finals, and 12 extra members - all who will work as sparring partners - are expected to form part of the squad that will compete in two twin events namely; the African Boxing Championships and the African Olympic Qualifiers.

After a series of postponements, the African Boxing Championships have now been penciled for 25 July to 6 August in Yaounde, Cameroon, with the Olympic Qualifiers on 9-15 September in Dakar, Senegal.

Headlining the group of winners are; Olympians Christine Ongare and Elizabeth Andiego, national team captain Boniface Mugunde, African Championships silver medalist Samuel Njau and 2023 Men’s World Boxing Championships sensation David Karanja.

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In a twist of traditions, the National qualifiers at Charter Hall, Nairobi, saw Kenya align to IOC’s new boxers quotes - that will now see the weight categories for men get whittled down to seven, with women’s going to six.

“What we saw over the weekend was boxers trying to adjust to different weights and thus the high number of upsets,” BFK Communications Director Duncan Kuria said.

Among the upsets then saw experienced boxers like Pauline Chege, Teresia Wanjiru, Shaffi Bakari and Edwin Okong’o suffer defeats, with their names still being included in the provisional squad list for the African Championships.

It is to be noted that the July event will not constitute the same weight categories as the Olympic Qualifiers - that will now see seven slots awarded to the men (one each per weight category), with the women getting two slots per category bar the middleweight division).

“It will be important to double up on both championships for experience,” Kuria added, mentioning that the possibility of facing similar opponents in Dakar is high.

The team will start their preparations on Wednesday at the VMX Gym, with sparring happening on alternate days; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at the Mathare Police Depot under national team head coach Musa Benjamin.

TEAM SQUAD

MEN: David Karanja, Samuel Njau, Ethan Maina, Boniface Mogunde, Robert Okaka, Peter Abuti, Fredrick Ramogi.

WOMEN: Christine Ongare, Amina Martha, Angela Otieno, Friza Anyango, Elizabeth Andiego.

SPARRING: Kelvin Maina, Shaffi Bakari, Aloice Vincent, Steve Olang, Glensonton, Hezron Maganga, Joshua Clive, Edwin Okong'o, Abednego Kyalo, Ann Wanjiru, Pauline Chege, Teresia Wanjiru.