TZ boxers eye gold in Yaounde tour

TANZANIAN boxers, Yusuph Changalawe and Grace Mwakamele today vie for gold medals in the African Boxing Championship when they face their opponents from Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal respectively.

The bouts to take place in Yaounde, Cameroon today will see Changalawe on a ring against Landu Mbeli of Congo DR in the light-heavyweight category while Mwakamele will face Amadou Ndiaye of Senegal in the women’s light-middleweight category.

Changalawe, who is sure of grabbing a bronze medal, advanced to the semi-finals after knocking out Emmanuel Antalika as Mbeli knocked out Laurence Kayoiwa of Uganda with a technical knockout.

Therefore, the fight is expected to be intense as both boxers outclassed their previous opponents to such an extent that the referee had to stop it.

On the women’s side, Tanzanian boxer Grace advanced to the semifinals on a walk-over (W/O). Win by walkover happens when a boxer is present in the ring and their opponent fails to appear in the ring after being announced.

One minute after the bell rings, the present boxer will be declared the winner by walkover.

The Tanzanian boxers, therefore are sure of bronze medals after making it to the semis. Do the Tanzanian boxers win their semi-finals, they will be sure of a silver or a gold medal as finalists.

Before Changalawe excelled in these competitions, he secured a bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games together with Kassim Mbundwike.

Tanzanian boxers will also win cash prizes as those boxers are assured bronze medals. They will get US dollar 5,000(12.25m/-) each.

If they win silver they will get US dollar 10,000 (24.5m/-) and gold medalists will receive US dollar 15,000/- (36m/-).