African champion dedicates gold to sponsor
L-R Coach Kalungi, Rabbani, Mwenda kissing his continental medal and Hanae Mussa, who sanctioned the sponsorship. PHOTO/ABDUL-NASSER SSEMUGABI
What you need to know:
Mwenda, lean and tall, exuded power and urgency, like a man on a mission, dispatching South African Vumazonke Indiphile and Libyan Mohamed Diallo with second-round stoppages to storm the final.
Joshua Mwenda almost missed the Africa Youth Amateur Boxing Championship, like all his colleagues, due to lack of facilitation until a sponsor bought him a ticket to Guinea-Conakry a few days to action.
“Honestly, I didn’t see this happening. And we are very grateful to Multi Sports Centre who gave Joshua the ticket to Guinea. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have travelled,” said Mwenda’s club coach Herbert Kalungi, who was in his corner for all the three victories leading to a historic gold medal.
Mwenda, lean and tall, exuded power and urgency, like a man on a mission, dispatching South African Vumazonke Indiphile and Libyan Mohamed Diallo with second-round stoppages to storm the final.
Until now, Mwenda had ridden on the support of the home crowd, but how would it be when against a Guinean in the gold medal match?
“Of course some left me and rooted for their homeboy. But I was already determined to win,” Mwenda said at the brief welcome breakfast at Multi Sports Centre on Kampala Road last week.
His determination wasn’t overstated considering he knocked down Mamadou Diallo twice before the referee stopped the contest in the third round in favour of Mwenda.
“It’s an amazing experience, whenever I think about it. I had always dreamt of winning medals for my country but I didn’t know it would happen this soon,” Mwenda said before a cake was cut to celebrate his continental conquest.
“But I thank God for giving me a good coach and a good sponsor, otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it.”
The sponsor is equally proud. “It’s our policy to help young Ugandan talents. We have sponsored many in badminton, football and other sports. But Joshua stands out because he has paid us back by winning gold for Uganda,” said Ghulam Rabbani, the managing director Multi Sports, dealers in high-quality sports equipment for 27 years. “We are extremely delighted.”
The Senior Three student of Bweyogerere SS is Uganda’s first gold medalist since welterweight Muzamir Kakande at the 2017 African [senior] Championships in Brazzaville-Congo. And in the youth tournament, Mwenda has set the bar quite high because at the 2018 edition in Casablanca, Morocco, Reagan Musoke and Muhammed Mazida got silver and bronze respectively. The famous Ukasha Matovu dropped out at the quarterfinals.
“I don’t want to compare myself to my seniors. But I know I have a mission to achieve great things,” the soft-spoken Mwenda said.
Now he has an even bigger assignment: the World Youth Championship due in October in China. And the sponsor has pledged to once again be part of the epic journey.
MWENDA'S RUN TO GOLD
Vumazonke Indiphile, RSC, RD2
Mohamed Kesher, RSC, RD2
Mamadou Diallo, RSC, RD3
