Boxing: African Olympic qualifier in Algeria-Mellie finds the going tough |26 January 2008

Winner of a bye straight into the quarters, César was to trade punches with an Ethiopian.
There are nine boxers in the 51-kg category.

As for Jean-Paul Mellie, he bowed out of the 60-kg category after losing his preliminary round contest 3-26 to Namibian Julius Indongo.

Gold medallist at the Seventh Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Madagascar, 25-year-old Mellie, who last year participated in the‘Good Luck Beijing’ International Boxing Invitational Tournament in Beijing, China, was hoping to get a win to progress to the quarterfinals.

A total of 110 boxers from 18 countries are participating in the championship which started on Tuesday this week and will end on Friday February 1.

Boxers who lose in the ongoing competition in Algiers and fail to qualify for the Olympic Games will have another chance at the next Africa round slated for March 22 to April 2 in Windhoek, Namibia. Africa will be represented by 60 boxers at the Beijing Olympic Games.

It is worth noting that the Seventh All-Africa Games in Algeria in July, 2007 where 22 finalists earned berths for Beijing, was to be the continent's first qualifier.

G. G.