Kenya’s hopes of sending a boxing team to the Olympic Games were dashed for the first time in sixty years as the national boxing team failed to secure tickets to the Paris Games in Bangkok.
Peter Abuti, the last Kenyan boxer standing, was defeated in the round of 32 by Polish Mateusz Bereznick, marking the end of Kenya’s attempts to qualify for the Olympics.
This marks the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games that Kenya will not have a boxer representing the country at the Summer Games. Despite sending six boxers to Bangkok for the last world qualification competition, none were able to advance past the preliminary rounds.
The team’s disappointing performance follows similar outcomes in previous qualification tournaments in Dakar, Senegal, and Busto Arsizio, Italy. Kenya’s boxing legacy, once a prominent sport in Olympic success, has waned in recent years, with the last medal won by Robert Napunyi Wangila and Chris Sande in 1988.
Urgent measures are needed to address the decline in boxing standards and revive Kenya’s boxing prowess on the international stage.
