Kenyan boxers Christine Ongare and Elizabeth Akinyi lost their preliminary round bouts on the opening day of the invitational Konstantin Korotkov Memorial Boxing championship in Moscow, Russia.
Olympic bound, Ongare lost to Diana Gorishnaya of Estonia through unanimous points. Ongare amassed 28-29, 27-30,27-30 in the three rounds to lose the fly weight fight .
‘’I faced a challenging opponent in the sense that she was employing unorthodox tactics or ways to win, she was holding onto me and the referee kept on penalizing me instead, things were going vice versa, I have learnt through today’s game that I have to be prepared to handle any opponent and the tactics they employ’, said Ongare.
Her counterpart Elizabeth Akinyi abandoned her welter weight 69KG fight against Dominican Republic’s Maronta Hernandec in the second round after sustaining a cut in his mouth
Get breaking news on your Mobile as-it-happens. SMS ‘NEWS’ to 20153
‘’ it has been a good experience for me ,I think I wasn’t aggressive enough and that’s why I lost the fight, My opponent was way up technically ,I wasn’t aggressive enough, I won’t say the coach threw in the towel for bad reasons .The little mistake that I made I will work on it. I wasn’t injured the gum sheet slightly scratched my skin and I was bleeding so the coach thought I was injured and I also had a count but I did not understand why because the punch did not land on me’’, said Elizabeth Akinyi.
Head coach Benjamin Musa admitted Akinyi’s opponent was superior technically and they were forced to stop the fight in the second round so as not to aggravate the injury she had sustained.
‘’Akinyi sustained an injury in the mouth in the first round and when the second round began we deemed it fit to throw in the towel so as to have her in better condition and avoid further injuries with the Olympic games lying ahead’’, said Musa.
Two more Kenyan boxers Nick Okoth and Elly Ajowi are set to enter the ring on Thursday and Friday respectively. Okoth will face Sergey Kishko in a quarter final feather weight bout while Ajowi will face his opponent in a semi final heavy weight fight on Friday.
The championship which culminates on Sunday is being used by the National boxing team ‘Hit-Squad’ to prepare for the Olympic Games in Tokyo,Japan.
