THE precociously talented amateur boxer Jonas Junias Jones has won everything there is to win except an Olympic gold medal, and this time he is determined to reach that long cherished goal.
His brilliance in the ring, though, has been offset by disaster outside it and now, as at the Rio Olympics, a shadow is once again looming over his chances of success.
His Olympics debut at Rio in 2016 became a nightmare after he was accused of sexual molestation by a cleaner at the athletes village and was arrested. He was allowed out to compete, but lost his first round fight and was then once again holed up in the Namibian embassy for eight months.
The case against him finally fizzled out due to a lack of evidence, but the ordeal had left its scars and now five years later he is facing a similar situation.
In April 2021 he was arrested in Swakopmund and later charged with attempted murder as well as assault against a police officer. He was granted bail, but will now once again have to return to court after Tokyo to await judgement.
Born in Swakopmund on 24 November 1993, Jonas first shot to prominence in 2010 when he won his first national junior title and by 2011 he had established himself as the top junior in his category.
In 2012 he represented Namibia at the Zone 6 Youth Games in Zambia where he won a silver medal, and after taking a break from boxing in 2013 to concentrate on his schooling, came back with a bang in 2014.
Fighting as a senior for the first time, he once again won a gold medal at the national championships and followed that up with a silver medal at the Zone 4 Championships in South Africa. In August, however, he took the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland by storm with a string of brilliant performances to reach the final, where he lost a close fight to Josh Taylor of Scotland.
In 2015 Jonas won a silver medal at the All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville, losing to an Algerian fighter in the final, and in 2016 he finally reached his dream when he won the gold medal at the Olympic Qualifiers in Cameroon to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
His Olympic debut, however, was a nightmare and after being holed up for eight months in the Namibian embassy in Rio de Janeiro, he finally returned home to Namibia in April 2017.
Junias put the experience behind him, got back to training and two months later was in superb form when he won gold at the African Boxing Championships in Congo, Brazzaville.
His greatest performance, however, came on 14 April 2018 when he won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast, Australia when he overwhelmed Thomas Blumenfeld of Canada 5-0 in the 63kg final. In the process he became only Namibia’s second boxing gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, following in the footsteps of Jafet Uutoni, who won gold at the 2006 Games in Melbourne.
In 2019 Jonas won a bronze medal at the Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco, after losing to the eventual gold medallist, Abdelhaq Nadir of Morocco in the semifinals, but on 28 February 2020 he was back to his best, winning a gold medal at the African Olympic Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal to qualify for his second Olympic Games in Tokyo.
On 6 April this year Jonas was in great form when he won the 63kg gold medal at the International Manger Memorial Tournament in Kherson, Ukraine, but only 10 days later his world came crashing down when he was arrested for assault and attempted murder, after attacking a police officer and striking another man on the head with an unknown object, which left him fighting for his life.
Jonas was later granted bail, on condition that he returns to court after the Olympics, so it remains to be seen what psychological effects that will have, but if he can live up to his great potential and pedigree he will have a good chance of success in Tokyo.
Jonas starts his campaign in the lightweight category with the first round on Sunday.
