Cape Verde’s star boxer David Pina (pictured right with compatriot Ivanusa Moreira) is looking ahead to the Paris Olympics with his head held high.
Pina’s sterling show in the final Paris Olympics world qualifiers in Bangkok has further boosted his confidence.
Unlike the 202O Tokyo Olympics in which he received a wild card, this time around, Pina had to sweat it out to book his Paris ticket against four strong boxers who included 2015 world bronze medallist Dmytro Zamotayez from Ukrain and Iran’s big-punching Mahdi Parvizi whom the Cape Verdean outpointed in the decisive quarter-finals which guaranteed him a place among the 24 African boxers to compete in the Paris Olympics.
The going will not be easy for Pina in the Paris Olympics. Among the top boxers lined up in the flyweight berth include Uzbekistan’s world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov, Frenchman Billal Bennama, a silver medallist in last year’s World Championships and Zambia’s crafty African Games flyweight champion Patrick Chinyemba who’s seeded third.
Pina is however unshaken by the formidable opposition ahead.
“I don’t think the boxers in my weight are different than me, I don’t fear anybody, we’re all in the same level,” he told me in an interview from Parthenay in France where Cape Verde athletes are having their final preparations before fists explode in Paris.
In addition to Pina, the other boxer representing Cape Verde is Africa’s welterweight champion Ivanusa Moreira also known as Nancy, a beneficiary of the nine universality wild cards.
Pina’s preparations started in Lisbon where he went through rigorous workouts at the Privilegio Boxing Club gym under his coach Bruno Carvalho assisted by Brazilian Carlos Gianone.
“I had very good training in Lisbon and sparring with a variety of opponents,” Pina told *_AFBC Communications_ .*
“We then left for home in Cape Verde for a bonding session with other Olympics team members and received our Games kit, we’re now all training in Parthenay up to the 23rd then we travel to Paris.”
The 27-year-old Pina made his Olympic debut in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. It was baptism by fire as he met Uzbekistan’s defending Olympic champion Zoirov Shakhobidin who easily eliminated the determined Pina.
Despite losing his first fight in the round of 16, Pina said participating in the Olympics for the first time was an inspiring and unique experience for him.
“Olympic Games are the best exposure in the world for sports people, I mingled with the best boxers in the world, and learned a lot from them.
“You feel a lot of value in yourself, anywhere you go they say athletes first, I felt very important, it’s the best place an athlete can be because the organisers value the athletes.”
After the Tokyo Olympics, Pina moved to Lisbon where he hooked up with coach Carvalho.
“He’s the coach who has honed my skills and made me the boxer I am today, I owe my success to coach Carvalho,” said Pina with a deserved sense of pride.
Through the knowledge gained from Carvalho, Pina scooped a bronze medal in the bantamweight category at the 2022 Africa Championships in Maputo, Mozambique.
With a few weeks remaining until the start of the Paris Olympics, Pina’s adrenalin is running fast. He can’t wait to prove himself against the world’s top flyweights.
Cape Verde, an archipelago of ten volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa, will be appearing in the Olympic Games boxing tournament for the fourth time. Their debut was at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games which I covered for the BBC World Service. Light-heavyweight Flavio Furtado was Cape Verde’s representative in Athens. The second appearance was at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the third in the 2020 Olympics, and so far they’ve yet to win a boxing medal.
Besides Cape Verde, the other African countries having boxers in Paris are Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, DR Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, Tunisia and Mali.
Credit: AFBC Communications
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