Ninth All-Africa Games in Algiers-Boxing |20 July 2007
The last two local boxers to be eliminated from all actions in the ring inside the Salle OMS de Bordj-El-Kiffan were Jean-Paul Mellie (60kg category) and Patrick Camille (+94kg category). They were both outclassed in the third round of their respective
fights.
On Tuesday, Mellie, who had last week got his first win in three participations in the All-Africa Games with a 20-15 victory over Motopi Mare of Lesotho, was up against Nigerian Ganiu Muideen whom he had described as “a hard nut to crack”.
His words proved to be true as the Nigerian punished him, forcing the referee to make a first count-of-eight on him in the opening round.
The score after the first round was 7-2 in favour of Muideen and at the end of the second round, the gap had widened to 12 points - 6-18.
It was mid-way through the third round that Mellie took more punishment and when the scoreboard read 26-6 for Muiden, the bout was over and the winner was no other than the Nigerian.
"Although I lost, I won't say that is was a tough fight. My opponent had scored a lot of points in the first round and I wanted to get back into the bout in the second round. There was a lot of pressure on me and he continued scoring as I chased him all over the ring. I thank my coaches - Jerry Legras and Pacheco Pedro - for their good job done and also Seychelles Amateur Boxing Federation (SABF) chairman Kenneth Nalletamby for what they have done for me and the other boxers.
With Mellie having taken the exit, it was left to heavyweight Patrick Camille to salvage some lost pride in the evening session of the competition. But he too failed to progress.
Camille made a good start scoring three points, but the heavier Remy Atsama soon took control, forcing the referee to make two counts of eight on the Seychellois pugilist in the opening round which ended 11-9 in his favour.
Cameroonian Atsama scored an amazing 20 points and allowed Camille to net just three in the second round and by the time the technical table sounded the gong for the end of the bout at almost half-way stage in the third round with the score reading 33-13, the
Seychellois hard puncher was again being counted for eight.
"That was a tough fight. Atsama is a good fighter and strikes hard. It's always tough in the heavyweight category as you can fight against a much heavier opponent. Obviously, I'm disappointed. Being the last Seychellois still in contention for a medal, I wanted to win at least a bronze. It's hard for me to digest this defeat as I know that my country men and women always want us to perform well and bring home good results. A lot of money has also been invested into our preparation. We trained and fought hard, but at times one cannot get the result of his/her hard work at one go. It takes time. I'm sure to meet Atsama again and I will take my revenge," said 22-year-old Camille.