Senegal arrived in Kinshasa on Tuesday, October 15, confident of improving on their 10th position at last year’s African Elite Boxing Championships in Yaounde, Cameroon.
The Senegalese team is made up of 12 boxers, nine men and three women, including one of their medallists from the Yaounde tournament in which they won a silver and four bronze medals.
Heavyweight Karamba Kébé was their most impressive performer in Yaounde with a silver medal after his points defeat to Nigeria’s Adam Olaore in the finals.
Bantamweight Pape Mamadou Sow, light heavyweight Mouhamed Seydina Konate, women’s lightweight Sagar Sy and light middleweight Ndeye Seynabou Ndiaye put the icing on the cake with four bronze medals for Senegal who finished 10th overall.
Kébé is the only Yaoundé medallist selected in this year’s team for the DRC tournament.
Other big names in the squad include Senegal’s two bronze medallists at the Accra African Games, middleweight Alphonse Mendy and super heavyweight Diarga Baldé.
Announcing the 12 boxers who will compete for Senegal in Kinshasa, Federation Secretary General Anta Gueye said they included three newcomers, welterweight Mouhamed Abdulah Diallo, light middleweight Allasane Ka and super havyweight among women Khadidiatou CISSE .
Mendy, the two-time zone two champion, is the captain of the Senegal team and one of the country’s most prominent boxers. Last year in Yaoundé, he was eliminated by Malian Moro Diarra in the quarter-finals.
Senegal has so far won only one gold medal since the creation of the African Championships in 1962. The gold medal was won by lightweight Papa Mamadou Sow at the 1998 edition in Algiers, where he beat South African Elivis Makama in the final. His son, Pape Mamadou Sow, is following in his father’s footsteps and was one of the four bronze medalists at last year’s continental tournament.
Credit: AFBC Communications
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