The kick-off ceremony of this one-week competition was launched on July 30 in Yaounde, Cameroon’s nation capital.
The Yaounde- Cameroon Multipurpose sports complex, known by its French acronym as paposy is the place chosen to host the African men’s and women’s boxing championships bringing together over 200 boxers from 26 African countries,
According to the International Boxing Association, IBA, the competition is putting on the ring, 142 male and 64 female boxers in the feather, light, and super heavyweights’ categories.
The official ceremony to launch the competition took place on Friday, July 28th, 2023 was chaired by the Inspector General of Services in the Ministry of Sports and physical education, Michel Mbarga Dissake.
In his key address, Mr. Mbarga Dissake, representative of the Minister of Sports and physical education called on the athletes present in Yaounde to enjoy the competition and show proof of fair play during their various fights.
The President of the African boxing confederation, Cameroonian-born Bertrand Mendouga on his part thanked the government for facilitating the organization of this competition and granting its support to the local organization committee led by Edmond Banga, president of the provisionary management committee of the Cameroon boxing federation.
For more than a week, the over 200 boxers will each tussle in the ring to defend their categories and countries to grab medals and cash prizes.
Amongst the favourite countries taking part in the competition are: host Cameroon, Morocco, DR Congo, Kenya, Algeria, and Mozambique.
It has been disclosed that the gold medalists will grab the sum of 15.000 US dollars, the silver medalists 10.000 US dollars, and the bronze medalists will be rewarded the sum of 5000 US dollars.
Fights will begin on Sunday 30th of July at 1 pm Central African time.
Elise Kenimbeni
