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Can Semuddu go for East African gold?
Muzamir Semuddu
What you need to know:
- Since Abdul Tebazaalwa and Muhammad Kizito, aka Sande Swico, won gold at the 1999 African Games in Johannesburg, South Africa, no Ugandan has matched them.
When Muzamir Semuddu enters the ring inside the Bukom Boxing Arena tonight, at the African Games in Accra, Ghana, he may not know that he is carrying the hope of an entire East African region.
Semuddu’s biggest worry may be about his superior opponent Omar Elsayed Elawady, the Egyptian, one of only the 18 African boxers who qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Semuddu was not even in Dakar, Senegal for the African Olympic Qualifier in September 2023, after a dismal show at the African Confederation Championships, in Yaounde, Cameroon the previous month.
But Semuddu’s almost invincible opponent is invisible: no East African boxer has won gold at the African Games in 17 years. At the 2007 African Games in Algiers, Algeria, Kenya was the only East African nation in the medal bracket. Dan Shisia and Joshua Ndere settled for bronze before light-flyweight Suleiman Bilali won gold—the last East African to achieve that, a record Semuddu can dream to break after sorting the Egyptian in light middleweight semifinal.
But Semuddu even faces a local record older than him. Since Abdul Tebazaalwa and Muhammad Kizito, aka Sande Swico, won gold at the 1999 African Games in Johannesburg, South Africa, no Ugandan has matched them.
At the 2019 Games in Rabat, Morocco, Isaac Masembe and David Ssemuju came close to breaking this jinx—now 25 years old—but lost their finals.
Semuddu has been a better version of himself on his second international assignment, first stopping Togo’s Holonou Akoussan in Round One, and edging Ghanaian Henry 4-3 after their tight contest was reviewed.
By press time yesterday, Tanzanian Ezra Mwanjwango, Kenyan Edwin Owuor, and Ugandans Kasim Murungi and Innocent Tumusiime were chasing the same record.
Today, it is Semuddu and Kenya’s Amina Martha Faki who takes on Nigeria’s Shukura Kareem in the Women's 54Kg semi-finals.
EAST AFRICANS IN ACTION
Men's 71kg
Muzamir Semuddu (Uganda) vs Omar Elawady (Egypt)
Women's 54Kg
Amina Martha Faki (Kenya) vs Shukura Kareem (Nigeria)
