Kenyans punched out of AIBA Worlds in Hamburg

Kenyan boxers at the ongoing World Boxing Championships failed to live up to the challenge as they were eliminated in the preliminary rounds in Hamburg, Germany.

The first Kenyan boxer to lose was John Kyalo on Day One of the championship in an embarrassing 5-0 whitewash against Benjamin Whittaker from England in the middleweight category.

African Confederation Championship gold medalist Nick Okoth was next to bite the dust as he was also out classed 5-0 by Brazillian Wanderson de Oliveira in the light weight category.

After Okoth’s lose, Kenyans hopes remained on  promising middleweight Shaffi Bakari. But he too followed in the foot steps of Kyalo and Okoth as he was overpowered in another 5-0 loss to Omar Ibrahim Saleh of Germany.

Speaking to Citizen Digital  Kenya Male Boxing Team Manager David Mnala crief foul over Bakari’s loss.

“This was a game that could led Bakari to the next round of this competition, and for him he knew it and did the best he could do. He beat Omar in all the three rounds, but we were amazed to see the Germany Boxer declared the winner by the referee of the game,” claimed Mnala.

The preliminary round ended on Monday with 31 nations reaching quarter finals.

-Report by Simon Ngaira.