▪️Five boxers assured of medals after the draw conducted on Sunday, February 22, 2026, with Kazakhstan’s female light-heavyweight Ryabets Nadezhda the first boxer to make it to the finals. Action starts at 3pm East African time.
22/02/2026
Egypt’s Solidarity Games light-middleweight champion Hekal Ahmed and light-heavyweight Fares Elsharkawi are the first African boxers in action when the 77th Strandja Memorial International Boxing Tournament starts today, February 23, 2026, in Sofia Bulgaria.
A gold medallist in the 2025 Solidarity Games in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Hekal Ahmed meets Turkmenistan’s Nurmuhammedov Byramdurdy while compatriot, Solidarity Games quarter-finalist Fares Elsharkawi battles Roumania’s Petrila Muset Eduard both bouts round of 32.
In women’s bouts, Sierra Leone’s acclaimed Josefien Angel Betist is drawn against Roumania’s Olympian and 2024 European Championships bronze medallist Nechita Claudia in lightweight pre-quarters on February 25 with Algeria’s two-time Africa champion and Solidarity Games gold medallist Ichrak Chaib receiving a bye to the round of 16 against Turkey’s Berfin Kabak in the welterweight division. The lightweight division is loaded with hard nuts to crack among them defending Strandja champion Kosovo’s Donjeta Sadiku.
“I don’t have much to say. Just going out there to do what I’m good at and the rest will follow,” Josefien told boxersworld.co.ke from Sofia.
“She’s a tough boxer, been around for a long time 10 years older than Josefien but we can win this one,” said coach William Brereton.
Five female boxers are assured of medals with one of them, Kazakhstan’s light-heavyweight Nadezhda Ryabets already in the final without throwing a punch with only three boxers in the light-heavyweight division.
Female pugilists in the semis are light-heavyweights Turkey’s Yaren Duztas and Uzbekistan’s Rukhshona Parpieva, heavyweight Bulgaria’s Aleyna Mehmed and Mongolia’s light-flyweight Nomundari Enkh-Amgalan.
The tournament has attracted a total of 338 boxers -209 men and 129 women – from some of the top boxing nations in the world.
The men’s entries are as follows: flyweight 13, bantamweight 23, lightweight the highest number at 29, welterweight 25, light-middleweight 27, middleweight 12, light-heavyweight 27, cruiserweight 16, heavyweight 20 and super-heavyweight 17.
Female entries: light-flyweight 7, flyweight 24, bantamweight 16, featherweight 16, lightweight 19, welterweight 17, light-middleweight 12, middleweight 8, light-heavyweight 3 and heavyweight 7.
