Police officers beat up prison warders, soldiers mercilessly

BOXING

Dec 13, 2009

By EUGENE OMILO

Kenya police scooped 125 points to defend their title in the just concluded fifth and final boxing league in Mombasa over the weekend.

The policemen took home the coveted Yamashita trophy for the second year in a row in a battle that saw giants Armed Forces Amateur boxing Association (Afaba) placed in the third position with 93 points.

Assistant Commissioner of sports Dickson Indakwa was the chief guest at the tournament also attended by top national amateur boxing officials.

Afaba coach Augustine Mutuku said their dismal performance was as a result of missing out on the Second leg as the team was participating in the Commonwealth games in Rwanda making them lose crucial points.

 Runners up Kenya Prisons carried the John Okulu trophy with 96 points.

The prison squad lost important points when its most trusted players James Otieno retired in the first round in the super heavy weight category in a match officiated by veteran Olympic gold medalist Patrick Waweru.

Another prisons player Jacob Kimanthi of middle weight category also retired in the second round after succumbing to mighty blows from Afaba’s Dick Ombaka.

The other participating teams were Administration police who came fourth with32 points, Coast ABA and Nakuru ABA who tied at position five with 24 points and Nyanza who came at the seventh position with 16 points.

Nyanza missed out most of the legs including the final one held at Mombasa Sai resort.

Others were Dallas, Nairobi, Meru, Central and Nanyuki.

The tournaments’ officer in charge Albert Matito said poor performance of most of the teams was as a result of their failure to participate in all the five legs due to financial constraints.

Matito said all the categories were represented in the tournament including youth and lady boxers.

During the finals played on Saturday, Mary Muthoni of Nakuru ABA won the ladies title easily after AP’s Rebah Matanda failed to show up in the ring at the last minute.
 

Muthoni was given a special present from Leah Gerenge who is the only female boxing official.

In the youth category, Coast’s Hassan Ali beat Issa Mwangi 9 -7 while Kibaki Tabitha of Coast lost to Dallas’ Paul Njika 5-4. 

ENDS.