From ELIAS CHIPEPO In Brazzaville –
ZAMBIA’S hopes of minting medals at the All-Africa Games (AAG) in Congo Brazzaville suffered a setback yesterday after six of the 11 judokas were eliminated from the competition.
But there was some hope in athletics as four runners, namely, Sydney Siame, Brian Kasinda, Titus Kafunda and Yvonne Nalishuwa reached 100m semi-finals and were last night competing for places in the finals.
So far, Zambia boasts of only one medal, a bronze, won in boxing by middleweight Ben Muziyo.
In judo, Abigail Chindele managed to reach the quarter-finals of the -48kg but lost to Saoudi Olfa of Tunisia and dropped to the repechage category (loser’s pool) where she fought Enie Oyama of Congo Brazzaville though in pain after developing a shoulder injury.
Medal hopeful Mathews Punza, who is based Uzbekistan, failed to live up to expectations after he was beaten by Ouvelou Koussou of Gabon in the -66kg pre-quarterfinal.
Punza, who earlier beat Faycal Traore of Burundi in the first round, was almost winning his tie against Koussou but lack of concentration in the remaining 16 seconds saw him overpowered by the Gabonese to exit the competition.
Youngster Joshua Nyondo started his -60kg campaign on a promising note after eliminating Nesuso Sicauque of Mozambique but could not match the strength of Garcia Pedro of Angola to exit the competition in the second round.
Victor Syamwampe lost his first match to Thomas Mlungu of Tanzania in the -73kg category.
Naomi Zulu lost her -57kg fight to Ratiba Tawiket of Algeria while Lestina Siapeya was eliminated from the competition after losing to Meriem Bjaoui of Tunisia in the -63kg.
Today’s competition will see Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Boas Munyonga start his medal quest in the -81kg category against Joseph Ochieng of Kenya with the winner facing Ammar Ben of Tunisia.
Edward Kamwandi was on bye in the first round of the -90kg and faces Zack Piontek of South Africa in the second round while Agida Phiri will be up against Bilal Zouani of Algeria in the +100kg event.
Mildred Nyondo fights Rita Ebere of Nigeria in the -78kg and the winner will face Mballa Atanyana of Cameroun while Lydia Zulu will be up against Loko Liliane of Congo Brazzaville.
Coach Moola Lipimile expressed disappointment with the judokas’ performance but was confident of a good outing today.
“The level of competition is quite stiff and I think the athletes put in their best against the highly-ranked opponents. Punza was almost winning his fight but I don’t know what happened in the remaining 16 seconds but not all hope is lost as we have Boas who will be fighting tomorrow (today) and the others,” he said.
Meanwhile, in athletics, Nalishuwa timed a disappointing 12.12 seconds to qualify for the semi-finals while Lumeka Katundu was disqualified for false start in her heat.
Kafunda clocked a less impressive 10.58 seconds with Siame timing 10.35 seconds in his heat while Kasinda finished with a time of 10.31 seconds.
African women 400m champion Mupopo Kabange was expected to start her quest for medals last night along with Rhoda Njobvu.