Okong'o bags gold at African Games

Kenya finally ended their 17-year title drought after national champion Edwin Okong’o clinched the middleweight gold medal at the African Games in Accra, Ghana on Friday night.

Okong’o defeated Elquarz Yassine of Morocco on a split points’ decision of 3-1 to end the long struggle in style, a development that elated Boxing Federation of Kenya president Anthony ‘Jamal’ Ombok.

“We have just started the long walk to stardom and it’ll not take long before we achieve our target in boxing development and promotion,” Ombok said.

Okong’o plays for former champions Kenya Defence Forces in the local league championships.

Before the team took a flight to Accra, Okong’o had promised to bring with him a gold medal from the West African capital.

“We are heading to Ghana to win serious business. Personally, I’m determined to win a gold medal in my quest for top honours,” he had told Standard Sports.

Kenya had sent a team of four boxers to the continental games who included Okongo, bantamweight Amina Martha, welterweight Alloice Vincent Ochieng’ and heavyweight Peter Abuti.

At the end of it, Kenya ended their quest at the games with a gold and a bronze medal after Martha (Amina) lost in the semi-finals of the bantamweight clash.

Martha was beaten by Nigeria’s southpaw boxer Shurukat Kareem on points.

In her first matches, Martha had beaten Sarah Apew of Ghana in a pre-quarterfinal match on points after earning a bye in the round of 32 and thereafter defeated Phekie Bele of Botswana on points to cruise to the semi-finals.

On his part, Okong’o defeated Mohammed Elal of Egypt in the quarter-finals before smashing Ahmed Abderraouf in the last four.

By winning the gold medal, Okong’o comes to terms with what Suleiman Bilali did in 2007 when he won a gold medal at the same competition (African Games) in Algiers, Algeria in the flyweight