Gicharu advances in World Boxing tourney in Baku

2014 Commonwealth Bronze medalist Benson Gicharu Nganjiru. 09/09/14. Photo: Jonah Onyango.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games bantamweight bronze medallist Benson Gicharu advanced to the last-16 of the World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Gicharu (pictured) defeated Emmanuel Ngoma of Zambia 3-0 in a one-sided clash on Monday after winning in all the three rounds of the match.

This was the fourth time Gicharu was meeting the Zambian. They first met at the African Olympic Qualifiers in Younde, Cameroon in March, where the Kenyan won, although he did not reach the medal bracket.

Gicharu was the only boxer, who represented Kenya at the 2012 London Olympics in Glasgow, but lost in the preliminaries.

Ngoma dismissed Zendi Krenar of Albania on a split point decision to book a date with Gicharu.

Gicharu will now face-off with the winner between Padilla Bennet Segundo of Ecuador and Diaz Azocar of Venezuela in the next match.

Heavyweight Aziz Ali, who won his first round match 2-1 against Phuzi Arnold Akani of South Africa, lost to Keser Seydor of Turkey on unanimous points’ decision to qualify for the quarterfinals.

On his to the quarters, Seydor defeated Parents Sergey of Kazakistan in the second round.

Amateur Professional Boxing (APB) middleweight boxer Nick Abaka was the fourth boxer to be eliminated from the championships, which is the final qualifier for the Rio Olympics for amateur boxers.

Abaka was beaten by Faraci Devde of Switzerland on points. On his part, Devde defeated Alvaro Santos De Umapeoro of Brazil.

Other Kenyan boxers, who have so far bowed out of the championships are flyweight Simon Mulinge, lightweight Nick ‘Machine Gun’ Okoth, middleweight Abaka(Nick), light-heavy Elly Ajowi and heavyweight Aziz Ali.

Meanwhile, Abaka has another chance of trying his luck to land a Rio Olympics ticket, when he competes at the World Professional Boxing Championships in Venezuela next month.