▪️Senegal entered the largest team from Africa of 15 boxers – eight men and seven women – but none of them won a single fight
▪️Their last hope Mariame Sow was stopped in the first round by Uzbek pugilist in the semi-finals of the middleweight bout
March 14, 2026
A devastating storm in Bangkok has wiped out Senegal’s entire team of 15 boxers in the Futures Cup U19, a qualifier for the 2026 African Youth Olympics scheduled for later in the year in Dakar.
Any hopes the West Africans were nursing of notching up their first victory through lucky middleweight Mariame Sow went up in flames.
The raging storm did not spare Mariame who was stopped in the first round by Uzbekistan’s punching machine Asoloy Bakhtiyora in the semi-finals of the 80kg category.
Their only consolation is they’ll return home with Mariame’s bronze.
Senegal’s head coach Ibrahima Wade and his assistant Alioune Ndoye watched in disbelief as their last hope Mariame sunk into the deep waters unable to do anything to save her from the ruthless fists of the Uzbek boxer.
The two coaches must be pondering what’s next for them after only one boxer – Mame Cheikh Faye – lasted three rounds while the rest were stopped in the first round and four of them gave away walkovers for being underweight.
It will be interesting to see if the two coaches will survive another storm back home.
In addition to Mariame, the other African boxer eliminated in the first session of the semi-finals is Morocco’s Marouane Jaafri in the 70kg men’s category. He was beaten 5-0 by Kazakhstan’s Bibarys Ashirbay.
Two more African boxers all from Morocco, Aya Essoubai 65kg and Rihab Hamdoune 51kg female category will be in action in the second session of the semi-finals.
