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K. TeyaTOKYO 2020: Ajowi punched out of the Olympics by Rio gold medalist from Cuba
Reading Time: 2min | Tue. 27.07.21. | 13:13
Ajowi lost to Cuban La Cruz in the heavyweight category
The 2021 Africa Zone 3 Boxing Championship gold medalist Elly Ajowi has been bundled out the Olympic games after losing to Cuban Julio César La Cruz 5-0 in the heavyweight category via a unanimous decision.
The 2016 Olympics gold medalist proved to be too good for Ajowi who despite his best effort couldn’t keep pace with the Cuban who went on to win all the three sets via judges’ unanimous decision.
The first set was closely fought but the judges still gave it to La Cruz. The Cuban went on to dominate the second set completely before seeing off Ajowi in the third to progress to the quarters.
Elly Ajowi has lost to Cuba's Julio César La Cruz in the heavyweight round of 16! #TeamKenya #Tokyo2020 #RadullLive pic.twitter.com/YXZAyTIpsx
— @RadullLive (@radulllive) July 27, 2021
Ajowi becomes the third Kenyan boxer to exit the competition. Nick Okoth became the first boxer to be bundled out of the Olympics after he lost to Mongolian Tsendbaater Erdenebat in a featherweight round of 32 match. The Mongolian won by a split decision of 3-2 after winning two rounds against Okoth’s one. He was followed out by Christine Ongare who went down 5-0 to Irish Magno of Philippines in the flyweight category.
Kenya’s hopes of bagging a medal in the competition now lies in the shoulders of Elizabeth Akinyi who will be playing Mozambican Alcinda Panguana in a welterweight round of 16 games on Tuesday afternoon.
