Uganda Still Seeking Boxing Win At Olympics After 17 Years

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Olympics July 26, 2021

It has been 17 years down the road since Uganda registered a boxing win at the Olympic Games.

The last boxer to do this is Sam ‘Rocky’ Rukundo who won two fights at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. He fought in the lightweight category before falling to Russia’s Murat Petrovich Khrachev.

Catherine Nanziri made history as she became the first female boxer to ever represent Uganda at the Olympic Games. She, however, fell to Japan’s Tsukumi Namiki in the flyweight, the round of 32 on Sunday.

This automatically passed on the mantle to David Kavuma Ssemujju and Bombers captain Shadir Bwogi to try and fetch a win.

Semujju will take on Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi in the round of 32 (middleweight) later today. He will also become the 40th boxer to represent Uganda at the Olympic Games.

George Oywello became the first boxer to ever represent Uganda at the Olympics back in the 1960 Games in Rome, Italy.

As for Rukundo, he earned a ticket to the 2004 games after emerging runner-up in the AIBA African Olympic Qualifying Tournament. It happened in Gaborone, Botswana the previous year.

When he reached Athens, his first opponent happened to be Tahar Tamsamani.

Tamar had won a bronze medal in the featherweight (57 kg) from the Sydney Olympic Games that happened in 2000. However, this did not stop Rukundo from eliminating Tamar in the first round, winning the bout 30-22.

Hopefully, the country will register another win or even secure a medal from the boxing field.

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