Kenyans book quarters slots at Paris qualifiers

Featherweight Pauline Chege training at Mathare Police Depot, Nairobi, ahead of Women World Championship. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Africa Zone Three flyweight gold medallist David Karanja is among three Kenyan boxers who qualified for quarter-finals in the Africa Olympic Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal after winning their matches on Monday night.

Karanja saw-off Johannes Trofimus Nondakofa Tuuyen of Namibia 3-2 in the flyweight division (51kg).

Other boxers who won their matches on the same day were welterweight Frazier Anyango and heavyweight Peter Abuti.

Anyango defeated Mbaye Awa Cheikh of Senegal when the referee stopped the contest in round two as Abuti walloped Kandil Hazem Nader Abdellatif of Egypt 5-0.

Featherweight Pauline Chege was beaten by Mariatou Diallo of Senegal on points.

“The wins is a morale booster to the rest of the squad who are still in the competition. And we are determined to have some of them pick their Olympic tickets here,” Deputy coach David Munuhe told Standard Sports from Dakar.

The three victories came a day after three boxers were shown the door, a development that was not received well in their camp.

Those who have been knocked out are captain Boniface Mogunde, former Commonwealth Games flyweight bronze medallist Christine Ongare and national featherweight champion Amina Martha.

Mogunde was beaten by Lesotho boxer Michael Pakela in the light middleweight, Ongare lost to Hafsi Wafa of Tunisia on unanimous points’ decision in the round of 32 in the flyweight division while Martha was beaten by Haghighat -Joo Sara of Sierra Leone.