Nigerian boxers at the African Games won a record eight gold medals a feat which placed the country above other participating nation’s in the exciting contest held at the Bukom Boxing Stadium in Accra.
It is an epoc making achievement. For the first time in over 20 years of African boxing, Nigeria dominated the event and Nigeria Boxing Federation officials are determined to maintain the winning streak going forward.
“We have never achieved this kind of result before and this is something worth celebrating by Nigerians,” said Dapo Akinyele NBF secretary general.
“The African Boxing Confederation officials praised our efforts saying we have taken over from the north Africans who use to dominate boxing.”
He said the federation is looking to sustain the momentum but would need adequate funding.
” We can only hope that this feat attracts more funding from govt and corporate bodies so that we can improve on what we have done most especially at the Olympics we have three boxers who have qualified.
“We came here with athletes who merited their selection, there was no favouritism in the selection of the team that is basically the foundation of our success,” he added.
In the women’s 57kg, Nene Ojo walked over Chahira Selmouni of Tunisia and in the men’s 57 kg Olympic bound Dalop Omole won against Mozambique’s Rigoberto Sigauque after the referee stopped the fight.
In the women’s 75kg Patricia Mbata out punched Tunisia’s Molka Ben Mabrouk 4-0. Olympics qualifier Olaore Adams put up a classical performance by knocking out Togo’s Kevin Kuadjovi in the men’s 92kg.
Cynthia Semilore outclassed Moha Mahfouz of Egypt 5-0 in the women’s 60kg; in the women 70kg, Blessing Orakwe posted a 5-0 win over Luca Alcinda Dos Santos of Mozambique, in the 81kg Jancita Umunakwe beat Joel Marie Mwika of Congo Democratic Republic 4-1. And in the men’s 92+kg, Ifeanyi Onyekwere battled hard to stop Alo Mike Mansogo Ada of Equatorial Guinea 4-3.
Zainab Adeshina lost in the women’s
5okg to Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria and in 54kg Shakura Kareem lost to Bertal Widad of Morocco to settle for silver.
