1962 Egypt beats Ghana in first African Boxing Championships

Photo: Ghana's first Olympic medallist, Clement Quartey (left), in action at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome where he won silver. Quartey was one of four Ghanaian gold medallists at the first African Boxing Championships in 1962 in Cairo, Egypt.

• Both countries won four gold medals in the hard-fought final in Cairo in 1962.
• Nigeria finished third as Kenya won the battle for East African glory rights against Uganda

The first African Boxing Championships in 1962 in Cairo proved to be a two-horse race between host countries Egypt and Ghana, the two dominant boxing nations in Africa at the time.

With five boxers each in the final, Egypt and Ghana fought a fierce battle; but the hosts had the last laugh by edging out Ghana with one more bronze medal than Ghana.

This result is, however, subject to verification by boxing historians.

The final medal table shows both countries finishing with four golds, one silver and two bronzes, but when I cross-referenced the bronze medals in my archives, I noticed that Ghana had one bronze and not two as indicated on the final medal table. Ghana's bronze came from welterweight Joe Darkey who lost to Uganda's Powell Mabwa in the semi-finals. And on points, it shows that Egypt and Ghana are tied with 25 each.

Egypt's four gold medals were won by bantamweight Abdel Moneim el-Gundi, welterweight Sayed el-Nahas, super welterweight Hussein Saddik and heavyweight James Marzhar.

Ghana's four gold medals came from lightweight Eddie Blay, their first ever Olympic medallist Clement Quartey at super-lightweight who won a silver medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, middleweight Alhassan Brimah and light heavyweight Jojo Miles.

One of the major obstacles I face as a boxing historian researching African boxing is the inconsistency and incomplete information, especially on most of the past African championships.

This is an area largely ignored by African boxing leaders, unlike in Europe where they keep proper records and statistics of their past tournaments.

For example, at the inaugural African Championships in 1962, Kenya and Uganda were tied for eighth in the medal table with a silver each from Powell Mabwa and heavyweight Christian Opiyo of Mombasa, while Kenya won two bronze medals from bantamweight Mohammed Noor of Pumwani Boxing Club and featherweight Francis Gakungu of Railways Training School, but their bronze medals were not presented in the final medal table. Kenya's 17-year-old rising star Philip Waruinge lost to Uganda's Francis Kisseka in the flyweight division in the preliminaries.

Thus, Kenya won the battle for bragging rights in East Africa against Uganda by placing seventh with a silver and two bronze medals, Guinea eighth with a silver and a bronze medal while Uganda finished ninth with a silver medal ahead of Mali, tenth with a bronze medal.

Nigeria finished third at the 1962 African Boxing Championships with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals, followed by Sudan 1-1-2, Morocco 0-1-5, Tunisia sixth 0-1-3.

John Nene
CEO NENEZ MEDIA SERVICES