Five Kenyans fall in Russia World Military championships

Chrispin Murimi (left) from KDF and Boniface Mugunde of Kenya Police. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Kenya Defence Forces team featuring in the ongoing World Military Boxing Championships in Russia, would have wished for a better ending.

With five boxers fighting it out in the quarterfinals in search of a slot in the last four, the Kenyans were praying for impressive results but in the end, the five pugilists could not master the right technique to make it to the next stage.

The five were Commonwealth superheavyweight bronze medallist Fredrick Ramogi, welterweight (64kg) sensational Chrispin Murimi, bantamweight (54kg) Samuel Njau, light flyweight (49kg) Abednego Kyalo and female featherweight (56k) Pauline Chege.

The five pugilists began their matches with determination only to be punctured in subsequent rounds and lost with different technicalities.

Ramogi lost to reigning world champion Lazizbek Mullojonov of Uzbekistan from a Referee Stop Contest (RSC) rule, while Murimi's welterweight clash was stopped in the first round against Abdulridha Karaawi of Iraq.

On his part, Njau lost on points to Algeria's Oussama Morddjane. World Military Games light flyweight champion Termirtas Zhussupov of Kazakhstan defeated Kyalo on unanimous points decision.

Upcoming featherweight female sensational Pauline Chege also lost on pints to Mongolia's Bolortuul Tumurkhuyag.

Two boxers lost their bouts in their first round matches. They are flyweight Kelvin Maina and heavyweight Fredrick Onyango.

Maina lost to Juliano Fernando Maquina of Mozambique.