Kenyan boxer Ongare relishes Olympics experience as dream finally comes true in Tokyo

TOKYO, Japan, Jul 25 – Despite being bundled out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the first round, Kenyan boxer Christine Ongare is contented and has chosen to picks the positives of achieving her Olympic dream.

Ongare, who grew up under difficult challenges from the Ghetto, lost to Irish Magno of the Philippine by unanimous decision winning 5-0, after all the judges handed her the maximum scores in all the three rounds.

However, Ongare, motivated by the Kenyan delegation led by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, who was in the stands to cheer on the Kenyan, said as much as she wanted to make history by winning a medal, she is happy to be finally an Olympian.

Ongare, said she has picked maximum experience from the Olympics and will be going back home to work on her weakness and get more exposure to get ready for the next international tournaments with the 2022 Commonwealth Games in waiting.

“It was a good fight going by the tournaments that I have played which were only in Africa, the only international I went was in Russia. To me I have gotten what I wanted, I have achieved my dreams and learnt a lot, now when Olympians will be counted, I will be among them,” Ongare said after the bout.

She however, revealed that in the first round, the headgear costed her and she could be seen trying to fix it and at some point, calling on the referee to temporarily stop the bout for her to adjust it.

“The headgear was a let down because they could not get the one that fits me well because my head is small, it costed me in the first round and if the opponent wanted it, she could have maximized on it and finish me off, she was nice to me,” Ongare stated.

She added, “I feared to continue asking for technical time out from the referee because he could think I was taking advantage but my coaches told me I could have gone for it as much as I could so that I slow the tempo of the game.” 

Team Kenya head coach Musa Benjamin was happy for Ongare, noting that she gave a good fight and she is the boxer to watch in future.

“Today we met a tactically superior boxer. We gave a good account of ourselves, bearing in mind that the opponent was experienced.

It has been very difficult staying safe and keeping fit because of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw us go a year without training, we had two tournaments one in Congo and the other in Russia, they came in handy for us but I think we needed two or more tournaments for us to be in a good state,” Coach Musa said.

The coach lauded Ongare’s performance especially after elevating her from the light flyweight to flyweight so that she can fit in the Olympics and she gave a good account of herself. 

Musa noted that Ongare is a big inspiration to many Kenyan female boxers and she had a piece of advice to them.

“There four key pillar that have kept me going and I will also pass it on to those who look upon me is to have perseverance, patience, self discipline and putting God first, without the four it will be very difficult,” Ongare who got her child at the age of 12, advised.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed was full of praises to Ongare for the spirited fight.

“The 50 plus million Kenyans are so happy with Christine’s (Ongare) performance, we are going to give her all the full support she needs, including organizing international tournaments for her,” Amina said.

With Ongare becoming the second boxer to bow out of the Olympics after skipper Nick Okoth, Kenya has now only two boxers remaining, Elly Ajowi (men’s heavyweight) who faces Cruz Julio of Cuba and Elizabeth Akinyi (women’s welter) who fights Helena Panguana of the Mozambique.

All the fights will be held on Tuesday.