Africa’s Paris Olympics campaign ended on a sour note when all the 68 boxers failed to earn one of the 49 available slots in the 1st World Olympic Qualification tournament that ends today in Busto-Arsizio, Italy.

The three female African boxers in action today (March 11) lost their fights.
Tunisia’s bantamweight Islem Ferchichi was the first casualty, beaten fair and square by Vietnam’s Vo Thi Kim Anh, who dominated the three rounds for a convincing unanimous points victory.

Much was expected from Cape Verde’s Africa welterweight champion Ivanusa Moreira against Italy’s 2019 world silver medallist Angela Carini. But, the Italian remained in the driver’s seat winning each of the three rounds 10:9 for a 30:27 victory.

Nigeria’s Africa silver medallist Patricia Mbata was the most impressive among the three African boxers. After losing the first round by 10:9 points, Mbata rallied back strongly in the second round. The boxer won 10:8 to lead 19-18 because of a point deducted from a warning on Polish 2014 Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Elzbieta Wojcik.

The Polish boxer bounced back to take the third round 10-9 to tie the scores at 28-28 points. The five judges declared Wojcik as the victor because of the tie. Since she won two rounds, the pendulum tilted in her favour with a 5-0 score.

Mbatia’s defeat marked a miserable end of the road to Paris for the 68 African boxers who took part in the Italy qualifiers. None of them qualified for the Paris Olympics.

However, all is not lost for the African boxers. They still have another chance to try their luck in the 2nd World Olympic Qualifiers scheduled for Bangkok, Thailand, from May 23 to June 3. With most of the top boxers booking their Paris tickets in the continental and the Italy qualifiers, the Thailand qualifiers will be less competitive, giving the African boxers a leeway to make it to Paris.

So far, Africa has 18 boxers who have booked their Paris tickets after the African Olympic qualifiers last year in Dakar, Senegal.
Algeria leads with five qualifiers, followed by Egypt, Morocco, and Nigeria with three each. Tunisia, Zambia, Mozambique, and DR Congo have one each. East Africa is anchored at the bottom without a single qualifier.

Bias decisions against the African boxers in the Italy qualifiers led to the dismal performance. Angola’s Pedros Gomes dropped a dubious 3-2 decision to China’s Ping Lyu, and Tanzania’s Yusuf Changalawe whose suspicious 3-2 defeat to four-time Norwegian champion Mindaugas Gedminas raised eyebrows among some African officials.

Zambia’s Commonwealth Games silver medallist Steve Zimba (pictured) was shocked when referee, Jean Telchemtcha from Cameroon, disqualified him for allegedly deliberately spitting his gumshield twice in the third round during the light-middleweight fight round of 16 against Mali’s Mahamadou Goita in the ongoing African Games boxing tournament in Accra, Ghana.

Zimba, however, denies spitting his gumshield deliberately and blames the referee for jumping the gun with his hasty decision of disqualifying him. “The gumshield I was using was borrowed from a friend because I forgot mine at home in Zambia,” explained Zimba when I spoke to him.
“The gumshield was too big for me, that’s why it came out twice from my mouth in the third to round. As an experienced boxer there’s no way I can spit my gumshield, in any case I was not tired.”

Zimba wondered why the referee did not stop the fight in the third round because he felt he had punished the Mali boxer thoroughly.

“The guy was bleeding from the second to the third round. I was punishing him and ahead on points from the first round. He also had a cut on his left eye, and the fight should have been stopped. So, I strongly feel the decision to disqualify me was not justified.

Has the disqualification affected him psychologically?
“No way, not at all, I’m very much okay,” said Zimba, and added: “The disqualification has in fact made me stronger, I’m ready to go to Thailand for the Olympic qualifiers. I will come back stronger.”

Zimba has now switched his attention to the eagerly awaited Mandela Boxing Cup tournament next month in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban. Boxers will be paid handsome prize money in this inaugural tournament to honour South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.

Zambia’s Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Steve Zimba (right), with a training partner in the gym. He has denied spitting his gumshield deliberately in his round of 16 fights in the ongoing African Games in Accra.