Bombers captain Joshua Tukamuhebwa’s hopes of qualifying for the Paris Olympics were ended on Thursday at the ongoing African Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal.
Tukamuhebwa suffered a 4-1 defeat to Mauritius’ Colin Richarno at the semifinals.
The Bomber, who was the last Ugandan boxer standing out of the six in Dakar, was just two wins away from securing a dream ticket to Paris next year.
But he was beaten by a better boxer again, the same man who beat him at the African Boxing Championships last month in Yaounde, Cameroon among several other times.
Richarno’s dominance over Tukamuhebwa is another manifest of his experience having played in three Olympic Games – 2I08, 2012 and 2021.
He will now face Jugurtha Ait Bekka of Algeria in Friday’s final.
And with all six Ugandan boxers down, the Country is set to be without a boxer at the Olympics for the second time since the inaugural edition in 1956.
Uganda did not also qualify a Boxer at the 2012 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
Uganda’s last chance to qualify a Boxer at the Olympics will be at two world qualification tournaments in Busto Arzizio, Italy from 29 February to 12 March and Bangkok, Thailand from 23 May to 3 June.
Away from the tough competition there (Italy and Thailand), it remains to be seen if the team will have funds (and on time) to prepare and fly out.
It was always going to be a tall order for Uganda to qualify a Boxer at the Paris Olympics through the Qualifiers in Dakar as there is just only one men’s quota berth available in each of the seven classes, with two quota spots in each women’s weight class (apart from there being just one in the 75kg division).
In short, seven men boxers (one from each weight category) will represent the African continent.
For a Ugandan male boxer to qualify to the Olympics, he had to win gold in his weight!
Shadir Musa, David Ssemujju and Catherine Nanziri were Uganda’s three representatives at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Nanziri and Ssemujju qualified to the games through rankings after coming short at the African Boxing Championship in Senegal where Shadir earned his ticket after a box-off.
The build up for the Bombers team to this year’s qualifiers in Dakar also left a lot to be desired as the Uganda Olympic Committee took charge of the team selection.
