Olympics 2020| Boxing: ‘Virginity’ Harshly Taken as Nanziri Suffers Defeat at Maiden Attempt in The Games
The Uganda’s first ever Female Boxer in the Olympics, Catherine Nanziri suffered a unanimous defeat in her first attempt in the world’s prestigious games underway in Tokyo.
Nanziri, 21, was the second Ugandan in action in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games that commenced on Friday 23rd in Tokyo, Japan.
She lost all the three rounds against the Japanese Tsukimi Namiki in the flyweight category at round of 32. The fight was held today 11:15am East Africa standard time at Kokugikan Arena in the Japan’s Capital.
All the five judges unanimously decided that Namiki won the bout meaning Nanziri lost all the 3 rounds.
Tsukumi won all three rounds with the judges’ score-cards reading 30-27, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27.
The 22 year old Japanese will face off with Brazil’s Sousa Grazielle who already made it to the round of 16 after receiving a bye.
Nanziri is literally the youngest on the Ugandan Olympic Team and the only female boxer.
She started her Boxing career at Aggrey Memorial Boxing club in Bunamwaya Six years ago.
Nanziri’s qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was a miraculous one. Having finished fourth in the qualifiers held in Senegal, her only hope remained in working hard to achieve the qualification in the qualifiers in France.
However, the International Olympics Committee cancelled the France qualification competition before they could happen.
The Paris qualifiers were replaced with an arrangement of the International Olympics Committee Boxing Task Force in which Fifty-three Boxing quota places would be qualified basing on their rankings with the best-ranked boxers per weight category, per region.
Nanziri’s dreams were made alive once more. She is 12th according to the latest world rankings among the female boxers in her category of Flyweight but also 12th in African region. This gave her an automatic ticket to Tokyo.
Fact File
Full Name: Catherine Nanziri
Date of Birth: 13th,09,1999
Place of Birth: Kampala
Nationality: Ugandan
Profession: Boxer
Category: Flyweight
Gender: Female
Next on card for Uganda’s boxers will be Bomber’s David Ssemujju who will be up against Moroccan Nemouchi Younes in the round of 32 of the Men’s Middleweight category.
Credit: Swift Sport