Bombers blame injustice for poor show

KAMPALA. The national boxing team, the Bombers, are a dejected lot after winning only one bronze medal at the ongoing 50th All-Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.
Six boxers left Kampala for Brazzaville about a fortnight ago, with high hopes of impressing.
But only light heavy Kennedy Katende, who joined the team from Sweden, managed a bronze after losing to Algeria’s Abdelhafid Benchabla in the semis.
Super heavy Paul Kayondo lost his first bout; light fly Fazil Juma Kaggwa; welterweight Nasser Bukenya; middleweight Reagan Ssimbwa, and light welter Tony Mukiibi, whose first knockout had given Uganda an early boost, lost their quarterfinal bouts.
Team captain Kaggwa blamed it on biased officiating. “You know Aiba (Africa boxing governing body) wasn’t involved in the tournament, and most of the African refs and judges have their issues. They really messed up our fights,” Kaggwa said after the team returned home on Sunday.
He added that bantamweight Nassir Bashir was barred from fighting because the officials alleged he had a beard—which was not true. “Some bouts had Algerian judges and Algerian boxers at the same time. What do you expect the result to be?” Kaggwa asked. Katende, chasing a dream of returning to the Olympics since 2008, celebrated winning Uganda’s only second (bronze) medal at the Games, but he was not impressed by the officials either.

Katende said: “Officiating was not that good. You had three judges from North Africa they always gave the win to their boxers; Fazil should have won his bout.”
Last month, Katende returned to Sundsvall frustrated after a controversial quarterfinal loss to Morocco’s Hassan Saada at the AFBC African Confederation Boxing Championships.
Kaggwa, Rogers Ssemitala, Abdul Hassan and Mike Ssekabembe will this week enter training for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar October 5 to 15.
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