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2nd African Military Games Boxing Tournament in Abuja, Nigeria, November 18-30
ERINA GOING FOR GOLD
âŤď¸ Erina Namutebi is one of the two Ugandan internationals in the UPDF team for the African Military Games
Erina Namutebi (pictured) is fired up for the Second African Military Games boxing tournament in Abuja, Nigeria, from November 28-30.
She has twice missed winning gold by a whisker with the national team but now she’s fighting for her employer, Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF).
Private Namutebi, who joined UPDF in 2021, is convinced she will win a gold medal in Abuja.
“I have enough international experience now to win gold and proudly hold up the flag of my country,” the 31-year-old Namutebi told me in a telephone interview from Abuja.
She made her international debut last in Yaounde, Cameroon, and beyond the expectations of Uganda’s boxing fraternity, the courageous Namutebi punched her way to the finals losing to Algeria’s world championships bronze medallist Ichrak Chaib via a second round referee stopped contest.
Confident and focused, Namutebi was on the warpath in Yaounde, stopping Mozambican Isabel Mulango in one minute, 12 seconds of the second round in the light-welterweight semi-finals.
Recounting her impressive performance in Yaounde, Namutebi says: “Most boxers go out of the country they don’t come back with any medal but with God I made it out in my first trip and won a silver medal, it was a really memorable achievement for me and my country.”
Namutebi has maintained her scintillating show this year. At the inaugural Mandela African Boxing Cup Championships in Durban, South Africa, she got another chance to fight for a gold medal by powering her way to the final but an injury knocked her out of this crucial bout. Her DR Congo opponent in the final, Merveille Mbalanya, scooped gold without throwing a punch.
Now with two silver medals under her belt, Namutebi is tipped by ring analysts as a favourite for the light-welterweight gold in Abuja.
In addition to Namutebi, the other international in the UPDF team is light-welterweight Innocent Amoko who represented Uganda’s national team in this year’s African Games in Accra, Ghana.
The UPDF team comprises seven boxers, five men and two women, and is coached by Tony Ssekabira assisted by Mike Ssekabembe.
Ssekabembe was Uganda’s sole finalist in the inaugural African Military Games in Nairobi in 2002. The Ugandan boxer was KO’d in the first round by Kenya’s super-heavyweight Philip Ouma. Uganda returned home with one silver and four bronze medals.
âđź AFBC Communications