Kenya makes the 17th appearance at the Commonwealth Games  Birmingham with the current crop of boxers hoping for a good outing.

Since the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games that were held in Vancouver, Canada, Kenya has won 48 Commonwealth medals in boxing, among them 13 gold to rank the sport second only to athletics in terms of success.

Kenya will be represented by four pugilists: Shaffi Bakari in the Flyweight category while Christine Ongare wears the Kenyan colours in the Lightweight (48kg) category.

Captain Nick Okoth will represent the country in the men’s Flyweight category while Elizabeth Andiego will make her third Commonwealth appearance in the Middleweight (75kg) category.

The highest number of medals that Kenya ever bagged in single Commonwealth Games is seven, 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze, attained in 1978, where Stephen Muchoki and Michael Irungu won gold, Patrick Waweru and Abdulrahman Athuman bagged silver while Michael Mwangi, Douglas Maina and Edwin Thande scooped bronze.

Ongare, who won Kenya’s only boxing medal – a bronze in flyweight – four years ago in Gold Coast, said she is also ready for the quadrennial competition.

“In boxing, you learn every day. Focus is now on speedwork and how to handle different opponents,” noted Ongare who made her debut at the Commonwealth in 2014.

The 2017 African Games bronze medallist, who started her boxing career with Box Girls in Kariobangi North in 2010, dreams of going a notch higher in Birmingham.

Upgrade the bronze

“I’d like to get a medal in Birmingham but I will play my part and leave the rest to God. However, my wish is to upgrade the bronze I got in Gold Coast,” said Ongare who also passed through Kariobangi Eddy Musi, Team Nairobi and Kentrack clubs before joining Kenya Police in 2019.

At the same time, Nick ‘Commander’ Okoth is ready to hang up his gloves but not without a medal at the Club Games.

The Hit Squad captain has been in boxing for 27 years since he was introduced to the sport as a 12-year-old boy in Nairobi’s Mathare slums in 1995 by the current national team head coach Benjamin Musa.

“This Commonwealth Games will be my last. I want to end my career with a medal, not just any medal but gold,” said the 39-year-old.

bantamweight in New Delhi in 2011, lost at the quarter-final stage in lightweight at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and suffered a round of 32 exit in lightweight at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

“I’m fit and our preparations have been okay. I know I will perform. Boxing is my job, it means everything to me. I have not won a medal at the World Championship or Olympic Games because some little errors have cost me but I have worked hard with my coaches to rectify them,”he added Okoth.

Andiego,35, who has been to the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and 2018, also said she is eyeing a podium finish.

“I was slowed down by a road accident in 2015. I had not fully recovered in 2018 but I am now,” said Andiego who competed at the 2012 London Olympics.

Bakari, who took part at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games and exited at the round of 16 at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, has high hopes heading to Birmingham.

“I have improved skillswise, speedwork and co-ordination of hands and footwork,” said the former Kisauni and KDF pugilist who turns out for Police’s side Chafua Chafua.