OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 2.00pm.
TUNISIA’s star seems set to continue rising in the All Africa Games boxing competition with four of their fighters still on course for the medalists’ podium.
In Harare in 1995, Tunisia won gold in the bantamweight, welterweight and junior-middleweight divisions to finish top of the rankings.
Four years later Ben Rabah has advanced to Thursday’s lightweight semi-final, with bantamweight Zemzemi Moez, welterweight Kamel Chater and junior-middleweight Marmouri Med Falah fighting in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. Chater and Marmouri are definates.
The sole Tunisian casualty after the preliminaries so far has been junior-welterweight Sami Khelifi, who went down 18-13 in his quarter-final against Nigeria’s Olusegum Ajose on Tuesday.
Only three of Tunisia’s boxers failed to reach the quarter-finals.
“Obviously, the main motivation is qualification for the Olympics next year, but it would be good to win a few gold medals here anyway,” said Tunisian coach Jamel Eddine Ghali, with reference to the fact that medal winners will fill 44 of Africa’s 66 medal hopes.
“We’ve had a problem with the climate here, and the food in the village is not so good for boxers.
“But we hope to do our best here. Our boys have had plenty of success over the years and we’re confident we can do so again here.”
Ghali declined to speculate which of his boxers stood the best chance of winning gold: “They all have the same chance, and they will give it their all.”
He was also at a loss to explain why Tunisian boxing tends to stand tall at the top of the African rankings, but accepted that it did not head the sporting pecking order in his country. — MWP