African Boxing Championships: the overwhelming favourites and the big absentees

The DR Congo will host the 2024 African Boxing Nations Championships from this Friday, 18 October, in Kinshasa. The competition will be held at the gymnasium of the Stade des Martyrs and runs until 26 October.

Around twenty countries will take part in these African Championships, among them Morocco and the DR Congo, the two overwhelming favourites for the overall medal table. The two countries finished first and second respectively in the overall standings at the last edition, held in Yaoundé, with 13 medals including 8 golds and 15 medals including 5 golds respectively.

Top 5 overwhelming favourites

Morocco and the DR Congo will again be the overwhelming favourites in more than 12 categories, even though not all of their Yaoundé gold medallists are in Kinshasa. Here is the top 5 athletes to watch at these African Championships.

5. David Tshama

The Congolese boxer (-75 kg) is aiming to win back the title he won in 2022 in Maputo and lost in Yaoundé after being beaten in the final by Morocco's Mohamed Rabii. With the former world champion not present in Kinshasa, David Tshama has a clear path to reclaim the continental title in his category.

4. Widad Bertal

She is gradually becoming the queen of the bantamweights in Africa. Since her bronze medal in Maputo in 2022, the Moroccan boxer Widad Bertal has won nothing but gold medals in 2023. She became African champion in Yaoundé and won gold at the African Games in Accra, not forgetting the gold she took at the Pan Arab Games. In Kinshasa, she will be defending her title.

3. Yasmine Mouttaki

She has come to Kinshasa to defend her African title in the light flyweight category. Yasmine Mouttaki is a two-time African champion (2017 and 2023) and a bronze medallist at the most recent world championships in India.

2. Pita Kabeji

He has the best record in DR Congo amateur boxing. Pita Kabeji is the reigning two-time African champion in the light heavyweight category, a gold medallist at the African Games in Accra and a gold medallist at the Mandela Cup in Durban in 2024.

Fighting at home, the Congolese boxer hopes to set a record of three consecutive African titles.

1. Khadija Mardi

She is the biggest star of these African Championships. In 2023, Morocco's Khadija Mardi became the first African and Arab woman boxer to win a world gold medal; that came in India. Khadija Mardi is the reigning two-time African champion and has come to Kinshasa only to show once again her supremacy in the heavyweight category.

Top 5 big absentees

With countries such as Nigeria and Algeria not taking part, and with some champions from the DR Congo, Morocco and Mozambique absent, these African Boxing Championships will be missing some stars and athletes of very high quality. Here is the top 5.

5. Mohamed Rabii

The reigning African champion in the -75 kg category and a former world champion, Morocco's Mohamed Rabii is not part of his country's delegation in Kinshasa.

4. Adam Olaore

He is one of the rising figures of African amateur boxing. Nigeria's Adam Olaore became African champion in Yaoundé at just 21 in the heavyweight category. Unfortunately, he will not be in Kinshasa because his country is not taking part in these African Championships.

3. Congolese pair Marcelat Sakobi and Steve Kulenguluka

These are two serious gold-medal prospects the DR Congo will be without. Marcelat Sakobi, the reigning African featherweight champion, is not in Kinshasa. She stayed in France to prepare after the Olympic Games, to focus on a potential professional career. As for Steve Kulenguluka, the reigning African champion (-71 kg), he has been dropped from the national team after a misunderstanding with Federation officials.

2. Alcinda dos santos

A world silver medallist in 2022 in Istanbul and the reigning two-time African champion (-70 kg), Mozambique's Alcinda Dos Santos will be one of the big absentees from these African Boxing Championships. According to the Mozambique national team coach, she is preparing for other competitions.

1. Imane Khelif

She is the latest big sensation in African women's boxing. Not only because of the controversy over her physique at the last Olympic Games, but above all because of the title she won at those Paris Games. Algeria's Imane Khelif, African champion in 2022 in Maputo, will miss these African Championships because her country is not taking part.