In Nis, Serbia
Win or lose, Team Kenya’s captain Elizabeth Andiego is assured of a $10,000 (Sh1.3 million) reward today for making the quarter-finals of the 14th IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, her biggest career payday yet and a huge motivation to Kenya’s female boxers.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) had earlier announced that only the top five boxers in each weight category would dip into the $2.88 million (about Sh370 million) prize pot but yesterday, Elena Sobol, the IBA’s Head of Communication and Public Relations, confirmed to Nation Sport it had been agreed that all quarter-finalists get part of the largesse at $10,000 each.
The news came as tournament organisers also issued an advisory for media and teams here to stay indoors on Saturday’s rest day as Serbia plans “the mother of all protests” with the anti-government maandamano epicentre expected to be the capital, Belgrade.
“Dear colleagues, FYI: On 15 March, the Women’s World Boxing Championships’ rest day, huge protests are expected in Belgrade. If you have had plans to do sightseeing in the Serbian capital, I strongly recommend that you completely reconsider your plans,” IBA media chief Sobol advised.
“It might have a serious impact on your safety, as the local people warned us that this is supposed to be the biggest demonstration by now. Kindly consider this message as a sincere care of your safety and well-being,” she added.
There has been an avalanche of anti-government protests in Serbia, some student-led, for the last five months with the latest having attracted over 100,000 demonstrators.
The protests were fuelled by an incident last November in which 15 people died when a train station canopy in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, collapsed, killing 15 people.
In the boxing ring here in Nis, meanwhile, winners in each of the 12 weight categories here will take home $100,000 (Sh13 million) each with silver medallists banking $50,000 (Sh6.4 million) and bronze medallists $25,000 (Sh3.2 million).
The cash awards are usually handed out after the regular anti-doping processes and other competition formalities are exhausted.
However, these championships haven’t gone the way the Kenyan camp had hoped for, with six of the team’s eight boxers already eliminated ahead of yesterday’s late action, some albeit controversially.
The latest casualty was featherweight Pauline Chege of the Kenya Defence Forces who was stopped in the second round by hard-punching Samadova Mijgona of Tajikstan last night.
The 26-year-old Olympian, a 2022 Asian Games bronze medallist, was conservative in the first round, forcing a standing count for Chege before coming in aggressively in the second round prompting the referee to stop the contest.
“Pauline lost fairly to a better fighter. The Tajikstan fighter punched hard and Pauline’s stance exposed her… I have nothing against the decision… the referee was right in stopping the contest,” coach Musa conceded.
Later last night, Kenya’s penultimate boxer, flyweight Lencer Akinyi, was up against Serbia’s Dragana Jovanovic.
Andiego will be in the ring today against China’s Wang Xiaomeng in the light heavyweight (75-81 kilogrammes) category where the Kenyan captain is ranked top at these championships that run until Sunday at the Cair Sports Centre in the heart of Nis, Serbia’s third-largest city.
The winner between Andiego and Xiaomeng will then take on the qualifier from the other quarters pairing of Uzbekistan’s Ruzmetova Sokhiba and Turkey’s Isildar Busra in tomorrow’s semi-finals for a place in Sunday’s big final.
“I’m feeling OK, ready to take on the Chinese boxer,” Andiego told Nation Sport after yesterday morning’s training session.
Xiaomeng overcame Kazakhstan’s Gulsaya Yerzhan on a unanimous 5-0 decision. in the Round of 16 to book a date with Andiego.
Coach Benjamin Musa also remained upbeat: “We have studied the Chinese boxers’ videos and I’m sure with her experience, Andiego will put up a good fight.”
On Tuesday, Kenya suffered further casualties as bantamweight Amina Martha lost to Russian military woman Karina Tazabekova after lightweight Emily Juma had gone down to home girl Miroslava Jedinakova.
Welterweight Friza Anyango lost to Tamara Kubalova of Slovakia while Cynthia Mwai fell to Miriam Hernandez Gonzalez of Mexico after the referee stopped the contest in the second round.
In the opening Kenyan contest here, light flyweight Veronica Mbithe was eliminated by Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan, like all her other compatriots, on a unanimous points decision.
The Kenyan camp will hope that Andiego has a “captain’s innings” and goes all the way into the semi-finals to provide some consolation to a Kenyan camp that endured less than ideal training conditions in the build-up to these championships.
