🇨🇩 Countdown to the Africa Elite Boxing Championships, Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 14-27
EGYPT EDGE OUT GHANA IN FIRST AFRICA BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS
▫️Both countries won four gold medals in the hotly contested Cairo finals in 1962
▫️Nigeria finished third with Kenya winning the East African bragging rights battle against Uganda
The inaugural Africa Boxing Championships in 1962 in Cairo turned out to be a two-horse race between hosts Egypt and Ghana, the two dominant boxing nations in Africa at the time.
With five boxers each in the finals, Egypt and Ghana fought a pitched battle but the hosts had the last laugh by edging out Ghana by virtue of having one bronze medal more than Ghana.
This outcome is however subject to further verification by boxing historians.
The final medals table indicates both countries ended with four gold, one silver and two bronze but on cross-checking the bronze medallists in my records, I noticed Ghana had one bronze medal and not two as indicated on the final medals table. Ghana’s bronze came from welterweight Joe Darkey who lost to Uganda’s Powell Mabwa in the semis. And on points it’s shown the Egypt and Ghana tied on 25 each.
Egypt’s four gold medals were won by bantamweight Abdel Moneim el- Gundi, welterweight Sayed el-Nahas, super welterweight Hussein Saddik and heavyweight James Marzhar.
Ghana’s four gold medals came from lightweight Eddie Blay, their first ever Olympic Games medallist super lightweight Clement Quartey who won a silver medal medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, middleweight Alhassan Brimah and light-heavyweight Jojo Miles.
One major hurdle I have faced as a boxing historian researching on Africa boxing is inconsistency and incomplete information especially on most of the past Africa Championships.
This is an area largely ignored by African boxing leaders unlike in Europe where they maintain proper records and stats of their past tournaments.
For instance in the inaugural 1962 Africa Championships, Kenya and Uganda were placed in joint eighth position on the medals table with a silver medal each from Powell Mabwa and Mombasa-based heavyweight Christian Opiyo yet Kenya won two bonze medals by bantamweight Mohammed Noor of Pumwani Boxing Club and featherweight Francis Gakungu of Railways Training School but their bronze medals were not shown on the final medals table . Kenya’s 17-year-old rising star Philip Waruinge lost to Uganda’s Francis Kisseka at flyweight in the preliminaries.
So, from the foregoing Kenya won the East African bragging rights battle against Uganda by placing seventh with one silver and two bronze medals, Guinea eighth on one silver and a bronze while Uganda finished ninth with a silver ahead of 10th placed Mali on one bronze medal.
Nigeria finished third in the 1962 Africa Boxing Championships with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals followed by Sudan 1-1-2, Morocco 0-1-5, Tunisia sixth 0-1-3.
📸 Ghana’s first ever Olympic medallist Clement Quartey (left) in action at the 1960 Olympics in Rome where he won silver. Quartey was one of the four Ghanaian gold medallists at the inaugural Africa Boxing Championships in 1962 in Cairo, Egypt .
NENEZ MEDIA SERVICES