Featuring at the Olympics is a dream for many an athlete across the world. And for the national boxing team, Bombers the feeling is no different.
Today, five of the 13 pugilists that travelled to Dakar, Senegal for the African qualifier can fulfil that dream if they win their respective semi-final bouts this evening.
Among them include David Semujju and Isaac Masembe who both silver medallists at the African Games last year.
Semujju was impressive form defeating Moroccan Amrani Ezzerrifi by technical knockout in the third round to storm the semi-finals in the middleweight category.
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"This was bout was not tough, the guy that I fought first was tough. But you know I have an African silver medal so I know what to do. I am a believer and everything I leave to God now , now I just need to go and work on my speed because I want to knock out the next one early in the fight," Semujju told the Olympic channel.
He was joined by Masembe, the number two featherweight seed from Uganda, who won an exciting clash against Botswana’s Kesaotshepa Tefo Maitewa.
It was close stuff, but Masembe landed the better shots in the second and third rounds to be a worth winner by unanimous decision.
He will now play Younes Nemouchi, of Algeria who stopped Jean-Luc Rosalba, of Mauritius, in the third round.
Also through is captain Shadir Bwogi who won his welterweight bout by unanimous points decision over Nafital Goma, of Angola.
There are two ladies in the semi-finals with Catherine Nanziri having defeated home favourite Khadidja Timera to reach the Flyweight semifinals.
"It was hard fighting the home favourite. Pressure was high one me. My history isn’t much because this is my fourth fight. It’s two years now since I started boxing, I just finished my form six [High School] then. I chose boxing because I wanted to be unique. But I really wanted to win this fight. This fight could take me to another level," she said after the bout.
She is joined by Emily Nakalema who eliminated Moreira Ivanusa from Cape Verde in the Welterweight category.
Heavyweight Alex Bwambale was one of the unlucky Bombers to fall at the quarterfinal stage losing to Youness Baalla of Morocco.
Other Bombers who were eliminated earlier include Disan Mubiru (Fly Weight), Solomon Geko (super Heavy), Suzan Akello (Feather Weight), Yasin Adinan (Light weight), Rebecca Amongin (light weight) and Joshua Male (Light heavyweight).
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