'Hit Squad' return home after Dakar heartache but coach Musa is unbowed

The national boxing team will have to go back to the drawing board after 'Hit Squad' hopes of securing quotas at the African Paris 2024 Olympics Boxing qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal ended in utter disappointment, returning home with just one silver medal.

The team’s poor show comes in the backdrop of a ‘specialised training camp’ in Cuba.

However, despite the poor show, head coach Benjamin Musa said he is pleased with the quality of performance displayed by his charges blaming ‘’some decisions and luck’’ for the failure to bag medals.

Musa is however adamant that ‘Hit Squad’ can still punch an Olympics ticket through the second round of qualification.

"We thank God for bringing us home safely. We started by leaving for Cuba for ten days on a special training camp to prepare for the first Olympic qualification competition in Senegal. We had six boxers in the quarter finals but five lost for various reasons but Liz Andiego reached her final but did not qualify for Paris and we are disappointed for not having a single quota," Benjamin said.

Kenya’s hope lay on Africa Zone Three heavyweight gold medallist Elizabeth Andiego but it went up in smoke after she was outwitted by Moroccan world champion Khadija Mardi in the middleweight final.

To qualify in her weight category, Andiegeo needed to bag gold as opposed to other weight-categories whose silver medallists automatically made it to the Paris games.

Now the Kenyan pugilists will have to try their luck in the first two legs of World Olympic Qualifiers to be hosted in France, early next year, and whose contestants will be losers of their continental qualifiers.

“We have returned home and there is no rest because there is an African Global Cup competition in South Africa and we intend to participate in that competition as our way to prepare for the second and third qualifiers to see if we can qualify for next year's Olympics,” Benjamin added.

18 athletes from eight countries confirmed their Olympic spots from the Boxing Africa Qualifier for Paris 2024 held in Senegal from September 9 to 15. Algeria led with five slots followed by Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria who got three each while DR Congo, Mozambique, Tunisia and Zambia got one each.