Kinshasha: Cameroon fails to shine at African boxing championship.

Team Cameroon has recorded one of its all-time poorest performances in the African Boxing Championships after posting an unconvincing display at the just ended 2024 edition of the continental competition.



The country rounded up its campaign in the two-week competition which took place in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The campaign ran from October 14 to 27.

The country won just five medals.

The team led by head coach, Alain Didier Ngatcha won the five medals through the likes of lightweight boxer, Wouang Martial, women heavyweight star, Keuye Bernadette and Nyangono Tsimi Marie Victoire of the women’s middleweight category.

The Kinshasa result represent a drastic drop in Team Cameroon’s performances in the competition when compared to the 12 medals that the country won during the 2023 edition of the event in Yaounde last year or the nine medals the team harvested in 2017 to emerge overall champions.

 

Martial Wouang leads contingent 

Cameroon won one gold, two silver and two bronze medals in Kinshasa.

East Region native, Martial Wouang secured the country’s lone gold medal after triumphing in the men’s lightweight minus 48kg category. 

He got the precious metal after overpowering Zola Tulembekwa of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the category’s final staged last Friday night. 

The Cameroonian secured a 5-0 win on points victory in the match at the end of a thrilling show against the host boxer. 

The Kinshasa success is the Cameroonian’s first overall victory in the African Boxing Championship after back-to-back series of heartbreaks in the competition. 

The boxer won silver medals in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the competition after losing to Mozambican boxer, Yacine Issufo and Lubalalo Lisizi of South Africa in Maputo and Yaounde respectively. 

 

Tsimi Onguene, Bernadette Keuye bag silver medals

Team Cameroon bagged its two silver medals through Marie Victorine Tsimi Onguene and Bernadette Keuye both in the women’s event. 

Tsimi Onguene settled for the silver medal after losing her final bout to Morocco’s Noura Mesmaoui in the minus 75kg category. 

The North African came through with the victory after dominating the Cameroonian star from the start to the end of the match to secure an easy 5.0 win by points triumph. 

The silver medal harvested in Kinshasa means this is the second time that the Cameroonian is settling for a silver medal in the elite African Boxing Championship. 

She bagged the same medal last year during the 2023 edition of the competition where she was defeated in the final by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Malewu Takesala.

 

Keuye succumbs to world champion 

Bernadette Keuye was beaten and forced to settle for a silver medal after falling to 2023 world boxing champion, Khadija Mardi in the plus 81kg category.

The Moroccan who became the first African athlete to win a category in the history of the world boxing championship following her triumph in the 2023 edition of the global event, outsmarted the Cameroonian with a smooth 5.0 win on points victory. 

Despite the defeat to the 33-year-old North African, the performance posted by Keuye indicated a huge personal improve in her drive towards greatness in the African Boxing Championship. 

The silver medal harvested in Kinshasa serves as an upgrade to the bronze medal that the boxer won in Yaounde last year during the 2023 edition of the continental event.

 

Nyangongo Engola, Abeb Georges get bronze medals 

Cameroon won a bronze medal each in the men and women’s categories after brave performances from Nyangono Engola and Abeb Georges in the women’s minus 48kg and the men’s minus 86kg categories respectively. 

Nyangono who went into the Kinshasa as one of the newcomers in the Cameroon team, went on to win bronze after working her way into the semifinal stages of the competition. She was beaten in the semifinal by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Bernadette Diyoka.

Abeg Georges, himself a newcomer in the Cameroonian team, was forced to get a consolatory bronze medal after going down to host boxer, Peter Mpita Kabeji. 

Kabeji eliminated the Cameroonian in the semifinals and went on to secure the gold medal in the series after beating Morocco’s Ahmed Badrani in the final. 

 

Nine boxers, five medals 

Measuring boxer for medal, the Kinshasa result meant only four of the nine boxers that Cameroon entered for the 2024 tournament failed to secure medals in the competition. 

All the four unfortunate boxers were eliminated in the quarterfinal stages of the competition. Morocco’s Nadir Abdel Haq notably knocked out Oumarou Mohamed in the men’s 81kg category after a sweeping 5.0 win on points beating. 

Jean Valerie Fabrice of Mauritania sent Issouhou Mouhamen packing after a clean 5-0 win on points victory in the men’s minus 51kg event. The Mauritanian went on to secure a silver medal in the category.

Minko Nsa’a Steve went down to Senegal’s Cisse in the men’s light welterweight category while Tamba Janvier was eliminated after losing to Matete Kankonde Landry of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

 

Overall disappointing performance for Cameroon 

The Kinshasa display is considered to be a generally disappointing one for Team Cameroon owing to the legacy that Cameroon has built over the years as boxing powerhouse on the African continent.

The five medals won in 2024 falls six medals short of the 11 medals that Cameroon won in the competition last year where it filed just 12 boxers in the event in Yaounde. 

Before the Kinshasa tournament, Alain Ngatcha boasted that “My boxers will make Kinshasa tremble, we’re fully armed now to take on the best in Africa. There was a little disorder within my team, now everything is okay,”.

This, despite the fact that flyweight category boxer, Reine Ngoune and super-heavyweight star, Zacharie Mvogo were absent from, by his personal rating, hit squad for the showpiece. 

Morocco came through as the overall champion of the Kinshasa championship. The team won 10 gold medals to retain the winner’s crown it grabbed in Yaounde last year. Host country, the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked second on the standing. 

 

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3273 of Monday October 28, 2024

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