▪️The African boxers have won four gold, four silver and 18 bronze medals since the inauguration of the World Boxing Championships in 1974
Africa’s total medal tally in Men’s World Boxing Championships has now shot up to 26.
This follows the three bronze medals won by Mali’s French-based middleweight Djibril Traore, Zambia’s flyweight Patrick Chinyemba and his compatriot light-welterweight Emmanuel Katema in the just concluded Men’s World Boxing Championships in Dubai.
For Traore it’s double celebration for killing two birds with one stone.
Traore not only won Africa’s first medal in eight years in Men’s Boxing Worlds but he bacame Mali’s first ever boxer to win a medal in IBA’s signature event.
Kudos to this son of Africa and his coach Rachid Hallaf who plotted the defeat of Spain’s Sergio Martinez by instructing his boxer to adopt the swarmer approach against the taller Spaniard.
“My strategy was to leave no room for the Spaniard to make any move, to deliver a very intense first round in order to create openings later on,” a delighted Hallaf told boxersworid.co.ke in an interview.
Traore, who has been living in France for over 10 years now, implemented the strategy to perfection. A swarmer is an aggressive, relentless boxer who closes distance to overwhelm an opponent with a consistent flurry of fast, short punches including hooks and uppercuts at close quarters.
This is exactly what Traore did with clinical efficiency , only changing angles but he stuck to Martinez like a tick does when sucking a cow’s blood.
Traore first did Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) from the age of 12 to 14 before switching to boxing in 2018 at 15 years.
“My first coaches were Tonio De Susa and Andy, then I moved to US Melun, my current club where I’ve been since 2020,” Traore told boxersworld.co.ke, the Voice of the African Boxer.
He has represented Mali for one year now, making his debut at the 2024 African Elite Championships in Kinshasa, DR Congo where he settled for bronze after losing in the semi-finals to the eventual gold medallist DR Congo’s David Tshama. Dubai Worlds was his second participation in a major international tournament.
For Chinyemba, this was his second time to take part in Men’s World Boxing Championships and the first appearance for Katema who represented the national team for the first in 2019 and Chinyemba’s debut was in 2018. He has since then risen to become one of the world’s best flyweights, representing Zambia twice in the Olympics, winning gold at the 2022 Africa Elite Championships, gold at the 2023 Olympic qualifiers and clinching the flyweight title at the African Games in Accra.
Katema came into prominence when he caused a major upset by defeating two-time African champion Jugurtha Ait Bekka of Algeria before losing in the finals to Ghana’a 2020 Olympics bronze medallist Samuel Takyi.
While African countries missed the elusive gold medal – last won in 2015 by Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii – the overall performance in Dubai is a remarkable improvement notably ending the eight-year dry spell without winning a medal with three bronzes, 12 boxers qualifying for the quarter-finals and 32 in the pre-quarters or round of 16 of you like it that way.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda also had their own fare share of success with light-heavyweight Robert Okaka becoming the first Kenyan in 43 years to qualify for the quarter-finals and Uganda making it to the quarters for the first time in 51 years through welterweight Bob Turyatemba while Tanzania’s bantamweight Issa Faki earned their first victory since 1974 when Emmanuel won his fight in the inaugural World Championships.
Africa’s 26 medallists in Men’s World Boxing Championships since its inauguration in 1974:
Gold
Light-welterweight Ayub Kalule Uganda), light-flyweight Steve Muchoki (Kenya), lightweight Davidson Andeh (Nigeria) and welterweight Mohammed Rabii (Morocco)
Silver
Light-flyweight Steve Muchoki (Kenya), light-heavyweight Jacklord Jacobs (Nigeria), featherweight Nourredine Medjehoud (Algeria) and light-flyweight Mohamed Flisi (Algeria)
Bronze
Light-welterweight Amon Kotey (Ghana), light-middleweight Joseph Nsubuga (Uganda), heavyweight Fatayi Ayinla (Nigeria), welterweight Roland Omuruyi (Nigeria), light-middleweight Kabbary Salem (Egypt), flyweight Hassan Mustafa (Egypt), featherweight Houcine Soltani (Algeria), light-welterweight Moses James (Nigeria), flyweight Hassan Mustafa in 1993. The first time the Egyptian won bronze was 1991 in Sydney, middleweight Mohamed Misbahi (Morocco), light-flyweight Hamid Berhill (Morocco), middleweight Mohammed Hikal, light-flyweight Mohamed Flisi (Algeria), middleweight Hosam Abdin (Egypt), super-heavyweight Arsene Fokou Fosso, middleweight Djibril Traore (Mali), flyweight Patrick Chinyemba (Zambia) and light-welterweight Emmanuel Katema (Zambia).
