KYALO HAS A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB
Abednego Kyalo is faced with a stern test to attain his goal in this year’s Kenya Open Boxing Championships which started on Wednesday, April 16, at Charter Hall.
The Kenya Defence Forces boxer is gunning to win his fourth Kenya Open title and the first time as a flyweight but between him and his goal is three equally capable boxers, his clubmate Kevin Maina, Nairobi’s Emmanuel “Manu” Chondo and Kibra’s southpaw Mohammed Hussein.
“I can’t underrate any boxer because each one of them has trained well for the championship,” says the 2024 Africa Championships bronze medalist.
“Kevin is my teammate so I don’t look at him as my rival.”
In last year’s Kenya Open finals, Kyalo lost to Silus Onyango of Police in the minimumweight division.
“I’m still new in flyweight but I think I’ll do good because I’m not straining,” says Kyalo who ventured into boxing in 2009 at the famous Dallas Boxing Club in Muthurwa Estate. The boxer was under the tutelage of Charles Mukula who also groomed Kyalo’s teammate at KDF, Veronica Mbithe.
Five years later, he made his international debut in the 2014 World Youth Games in Sofia and also took part in the Africa Youth Games in Botswana.
He struck his first medal – a bronze – in the Africa Military Games in 2018 in Algeria, and the following year took part in the 2019 World Military Games in China.
He performed better in the 2022 World Military Games in Russia punching his way to the quarter-finals.
Kyalo moved up from light-flyweight to flyweight in the 2024 Africa Championships in Kinshasa, DR Congo_Abednego Kyalo (right) in a past international tournament_ where he settled for a bronze medal.
