11 Oct 2015

Kagiso Bagwasi and Zibani Chikanda, Botswana’s only representatives at the ongoing World Boxing Championships, exited the tournament at the preliminary stages.

The top drawer tournament in the calendar of the world amateur boxing governing body, AIBA is hosted in  Qatar at the state-of-the-art Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya arena. Day one of the tournament witnessed a stunning exhibition of talent and techniques as the best boxers from all over the world began their journey for world championship glory.

Botswana’s hopeful in the light welter weight division Bagwasi formed part of the 40 bouts that were fought across day one of the tournament. 

The left handed and hard punching Bagwasi was stunned by Thulasi Tharumalingam of Qatar who delivered a perfect start for his home crowd after he convinced all the judges to reach a unanimous point decision. Bagwasi had qualified for the event after a bronze medal at the Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville last month.

Botswana’s middleweight hopeful Chikanda succumbed to 22-year-old Slovakian, Aljaz Venko in the 75kg bout. The 30-year-old ‘Gandaganda,’ as Chikanda is affectionately known, had a cruising journey to the world champs after impressing judges at the Africa Confederation boxing championships in Morocco where he was rewarded with silver before he succumbed to Democratic Republic of Congo’s Carlos Muala in the semi-finals of the Africa Games and settled for a bronze medal. 

His loss to Venko ruined any hope for Botswana’s medal hopes at the world showpiece.

Botswana’s only convincing performance at the world champs was in 2011 when Oteng Oteng won his preliminary round and was knocked out by a slim margin in the last 16 round. Ends