Two-time Africa Championships silver medallist Fatma Zohra (pictured) is among Algeria’s five boxers in Italy for the World Olympics Qualifiers starting tomorrow, March 3.
For Zohra, Italy offers her another golden chance to fulfil her burning desire to participate in the Olympics after losing 3-1 in the Dakar semis to Egypt’s Yomna Ayyad who is one of Africa’s two qualifiers in women’s bantamweight berth. Ayyad lost in the finals to Morocco’s Widad Bertal who’ll go down in history as the first African boxer to book a ticket to Paris in the Dakar qualifiers.
Featherweight Selmouni Chahira, a victim of a third round TKO by Nigeria’s Joy Ojo Nene in Dakar, also has another chance to redeem herself in Italy; so is Maputo Africa light-middleweight bronze medallist Yaiche Yousef Islam who was KO’d by Egypt’s Elawad Omar Elawad in Dakar.
The other boxers in the Algeria team announced by Technical Director Mourad Meziane are seasoned campaigners, featherweight Maouche Hicham and twice medallist in the Mediterranean Games light-heavyweight Mohamed Houmri (pictured right in red attire) who made it to the last 16 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Algeria leads Africa so far with five qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.
Credit: AFBC Communications
