Three Kenyan boxers romped into the finals of the African Boxing Championship on Thursday in Maputo, Mozambique<\/p>\n
Hit Squad deputy captain Elizabeth Andiego thumped Mkateko Sithole of South Africa in an action-packed bout.<\/p>\n
Featherweight Samuel Njau and captain Nick Okoth also made it to the final. Njau beat Zambian Ben Banda while Okoth sailed past Walid Tarzout of Algeria in the lightweight division.<\/p>\n
The three Kenyans now stand to walk away with Sh1.2 million if she bags the title. Gold medalist will bag a whopping Sh1,204,000 ($10,000), silver medallists Sh602,000 ($5000) and bronze medallists Sh 301,000 ($2500).<\/p>\n
Boxing Federation of Kenya communications director, Duncan Kuria said Andiego was forced to switch to the heavyweight division hours before the semis.<\/p>\n
\u201cElizabeth Andiego was supposed to fight in the light heavyweight category but she was the only entry in that category and therefore she could not get a medal,\u201d Kuria said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had to add 5kgs in three days to participate in the heavyweight semi-final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andiego switched to the middleweight division at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and cruised to the quarters without breaking a sweat after being handed a bye in the preliminaries.<\/p>\n
Like the rest of the Kenyan quartet she, however, returned home empty-handed.<\/p>\n
Andiego, 35, exhibited a sterling performance at the Africa Zone 3 Championship in Kinshasa, Congo in March, where she punched furiously to the golden podium.<\/p>\n
She pulverized Tekasala Malewu of the Democratic Republic of Congo on her way to the momentous glory. She has attributed her meteoric rise to proper preparation and hard work.<\/p>\n
Before her departure to Maputo, Andiego said she believed the experience she gleaned from the Kinshasa trip had set her on course for a successful medal hunt in future events.<\/p>\n
The seasoned pugilist is elated to have marked her return to the ring in style after a past harrowing procedure conducted on her left leg limited her prowess in the ring.<\/p>\n
The hard-hitting boxer escaped death by a whisker in 2015 when she was caught up in a grisly road accident while riding on a motorbike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Africa Zone 3 Boxing light-heavyweight champion now stands to walk away with Sh1.2 million if she bags the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":17513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-17516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n