Kenya finish second at African Zone 3 after Saturday gold rush

Kenya scooped four gold and three silver medals on Saturday night to round off an impressive African Zone 3 outing in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

That took the country’s medals haul to 16 medals (six gold, four silver and six bronze), a figure only bettered by the hosts who bagged 38 medals including 13 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals.

Cameroon were third with seven medals (five gold, one silver and one bronze) with Mauritius (four medals – gold and three bronze) and Congo (12 medals – six silver and six bronze) finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Featherweight Samuel Njau, Bantam weight Shaffi Bakari, light-heavyweight Liz Andiego and welterweight boxer Everline Akinyi won gold medals with lightweight pugilist Stacy Ayoma and light-middleweight Lorna Kusa getting silver medals to end the championship on a positive note after posting worrying results in the first two days of the tournament when ten boxers were bundled out in there very first call to action.

In a decision that left Kenyan officials fuming, Christine Ongare was awarded a silver medal after organisers opted against holding a final match after declaring her category was played on a round robin basis.

The Kenyan team was using the championship as a platform to select the final team for the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 due in July 28 to August 8.

Five Kenyan boxers Stephen Olang' (St Theresa’s Undugu Boxing Club), Isaac Meja feather weight, Ann Wanjiru (Kongowea of Mombasa) Fly weight, Martha Amina (Kibera) bantam weight and Alice Waiyego (Nairobi) featherweight made their international debuts in what looks like a deliberate decision by the technical bench in trying to bring in new blood into the squad.

After the Kinshasa extravaganza all action will head to Istanbul, Turkey for the AIBA World Women’s Boxing Championship due in May.