Boxers find going tough

NAMIBIAN boxers had a terrible Tuesday night at the All Africa Games in Algeria, as all four contestants lost their quarterfinal bouts amidst dubious scoring and allegations of blatant cheating by the judges.

Namibia’s Japhet Uutoni, Immanuel Naidjala, Julius Indongo and Desmond Kasuto were all eliminated, leaving just Johannes Simon and heavyweight Tobias Munihango remaining in the boxing competition. Especially Indongo can feel hard done by, as he lost his bout in dubious circumstances.He often didn’t get points after landing clear punches and one of the judges even awarded a point to the Tunisian opponent after Indongo, in fact, had landed the punch.This raised the ire of the Namibian and southern African fans in the stands, who started booing the judges, and the divide between southern African countries and northern African countries was further exposed in the bout between South Africa’s Mbira Owethu and Kramou Hamza of Algeria.Owethu gave a great display of all out punching to convincingly win the bout, but the judging was so skewed that the order amongst the fans threatened to get out of hand.The southern African fans, sitting on the right hand side of the stand rallied together and displayed their ire at the judging, while the Algerian fans on the left did the same.Owethu was eventually a clear winner, but the odds were clearly stacked against him.”The judges were being intimidated by Algerian boxing officials throughout the fight and the Algerian boxing president even spitted on a Sub-Saharan African official at a stage,” Namibia’s boxing manager, Elia Irimari said.”All of our boxers should have won.We will bring the video back home and show it to the nation so that they can judge for themselves,” he said.Namibia’s Chef de Mission, John Walters agreed that the judging was not up to standard.”I’d say I’m an objective observer.Maybe Uutoni and Naidjala didn’t do enough to win their fights, but I think that Indongo was clearly robbed.He didn’t get points for clear punches that landed,” he said.Uutoni lost 17-11 to Plange Manyo of Ghana in a light flyweight bout.Uutoni shaded the first round 4-3, but the Ghanaian took a decisive 9-5 lead in the second round.Uutoni launched an all out attack in the third round, scoring well with combinations to the head and body.But Manyo managed to stay out of trouble and collected some points of his own on the counterattack to go 13-10 ahead.Uutoni kept on attacking in the final round but he was quite tired, while the Ghanaian also held on a lot to slow the fight down.Naidjala lost to Issah Samir of Ghana 25-11 on points.Naidjala chased Samir from the start, but he couldn’t connect cleanly, while Samir landed some counterattacks to take a 8-5 lead.Naidjala scored with some good combinations but Samir edged ahead 13-10 in the second round.In the third round Samir smothered Naidjala a lot, not giving him space to land his shots and the Ghanaian took a decisive 20-11 lead.Naidjala stunned Samir momentarily with a solid right hook in the fourth round, but the Ghanaian recovered quickly and threw more punches towards the end to win the bout 25-11.Indongo lost 14-7 on points to Seifeddine Meymeoui of Tunisia.Indongo came out chasing Meymeoui from the start, but the Tunisian managed to stay out of trouble with a good defence.A big boo resounded through the stands when the Tunisian was awarded the first point after Indongo had landed the punch and Meymeoui went on to win the round 6-1.Indongo kept on pressurising Meymeoui in the second round, but the Tunisian moved out of trouble to take a 7-1 lead.Indongo used his jab more in the third round and tried to land some overhead punches, which the Tunisian easily managed to elude to move into a 10-5 lead.In the final round Indongo once again did most of the attacking, with the Tunisian back pedalling most of the time.Kasuto was a clear loser to Rachid Merdaffi, going down 28-8 on points.Kasuto came out smoking with some wild swinging shots that missed their target, while Merdafi back pedalled and threw some counterattacks to take a 7-2 led.Kasuto kept on lunging and missing in the second with Merdaffi scoring on the counterattack to take a decisive 16-4 lead.Kasut continued to chse in the third round, but the Tunisian slowed down the action by hanging on and clinging on to Kasuto to go 24-6 ahead.In the final round Kasuto trapped Merdaffi in a corner and landed some heavy blows, but the Tunisian managed to get out and scored points with his jab to win the fight 28-8.* Namibian wrestler Sammy Luttig won one of her four fights to finish fourth in the wrestling competition.In the afternoon session she beat an opponent from Algeria after pinning her down, but lost to a wrestler from South Africa.In the morning session she lost her opening bouts to opponents from Egypt and Nigeria.The Nigerian wrestler won the gold medal, Egypt won silver and Egypt bronze.* Namibian shottists Boelie Malherbe and Andreas Doepke participated in the 10m Air Pistol event, also on Tuesday.Malherbe just missed out on a medal, coming fourth overall, while Doepke came sixth.* Namibia’s chess team finally recorded their first victory when they beat Kenya 2,5-1,5, before going down 3-1 to Sao Tome and Principe.On Sunday Namibia’s chess team lost 4-0 to Zambia.sport 7Especially Indongo can feel hard done by, as he lost his bout in dubious circumstances.He often didn’t get points after landing clear punches and one of the judges even awarded a point to the Tunisian opponent after Indongo, in fact, had landed the punch.This raised the ire of the Namibian and southern African fans in the stands, who started booing the judges, and the divide between southern African countries and northern African countries was further exposed in the bout between South Africa’s Mbira Owethu and Kramou Hamza of Algeria.Owethu gave a great display of all out punching to convincingly win the bout, but the judging was so skewed that the order amongst the fans threatened to get out of hand.The southern African fans, sitting on the right hand side of the stand rallied together and displayed their ire at the judging, while the Algerian fans on the left did the same.Owethu was eventually a clear winner, but the odds were clearly stacked against him.”The judges were being intimidated by Algerian boxing officials throughout the fight and the Algerian boxing president even spitted on a Sub-Saharan African official at a stage,” Namibia’s boxing manager, Elia Irimari said.”All of our boxers should have won.We will bring the video back home and show it to the nation so that they can judge for themselves,” he said.Namibia’s Chef de Mission, John Walters agreed that the judging was not up to standard.”I’d say I’m an objective observer.Maybe Uutoni and Naidjala didn’t do enough to win their fights, but I think that Indongo was clearly robbed.He didn’t get points for clear punches that landed,” he said.Uutoni lost 17-11 to Plange Manyo of Ghana in a light flyweight bout.Uutoni shaded the first round 4-3, but the Ghanaian took a decisive 9-5 lead in the second round.Uutoni launched an all out attack in the third round, scoring well with combinations to the head and body.But Manyo managed to stay out of trouble and collected some points of his own on the counterattack to go 13-10 ahead.Uutoni kept on attacking in the final round but he was quite tired, while the Ghanaian also held on a lot to slow the fight down.Naidjala lost to Issah Samir of Ghana 25-11 on points.Naidjala chased Samir from the start, but he couldn’t connect cleanly, while Samir landed some counterattacks to take a 8-5 lead.Naidjala scored with some good combinations but Samir edged ahead 13-10 in the second round.In the third round Samir smothered Naidjala a lot, not giving him space to land his shots and the Ghanaian took a decisive 20-11 lead.Naidjala stunned Samir momentarily with a solid right hook in the fourth round, but the Ghanaian recovered quickly and threw more punches towards the end to win the bout 25-11.Indongo lost 14-7 on points to Seifeddine Meymeoui of Tunisia.Indongo came out chasing Meymeoui from the start, but the Tunisian managed to stay out of trouble with a good defence.A big boo resounded through the stands when the Tunisian was awarded the first point after Indongo had landed the punch and Meymeoui went on to win the round 6-1.Indongo kept on pressurising Meymeoui in the second round, but the Tunisian moved out of trouble to take a 7-1 lead.Indongo used his jab more in the third round and tried to land some overhead punches, which the Tunisian easily managed to elude to move into a 10-5 lead.In the final round Indongo once again did most of the attacking, with the Tunisian back pedalling most of the time.Kasuto was a clear loser to Rachid Merdaffi, going down 28-8 on points.Kasuto came out smoking with some wild swinging shots that missed their target, while Merdafi back pedalled and threw some counterattacks to take a 7-2 led.Kasuto kept on lunging and missing in the second with Merdaffi scoring on the counterattack to take a decisive 16-4 lead.Kasut continued to chse in the third round, but the Tunisian slowed down the action by hanging on and clinging on to Kasuto to go 24-6 ahead.In the final round Kasuto trapped Merdaffi in a corner and landed some heavy blows, but the Tunisian managed to get out and scored points with his jab to win the fight 28-8.* Namibian wrestler Sammy Luttig won one of her four fights to finish fourth in the wrestling competition.In the afternoon session she beat an opponent from Algeria after pinning her down, but lost to a wrestler from South Africa.In the morning session she lost her opening bouts to opponents from Egypt and Nigeria.The Nigerian wrestler won the gold medal, Egypt won silver and Egypt bronze.* Namibian shottists Boelie Malherbe and Andreas Doepke participated in the 10m Air Pistol event, also on Tuesday.Malherbe just missed out on a medal, coming fourth overall, while Doepke came sixth.* Namibia’s chess team finally recorded their first victory when they beat Kenya 2,5-1,5, before going down 3-1 to Sao Tome and Principe.On Sunday Namibia’s chess team lost 4-0 to Zambia.sport 7