Day 4: Mixed results for Maghreb boxing
2008-08-12
The fourth day of competition in Beijing yielded no medals for the Maghreb, but boxers Hicham Mesbahi of Morocco and Walid Cherif of Tunisia both secured wins to advance them into the next round.
Mawassi Lahcen in Casablanca, Nazim Fethi in Algiers and Mona Yahia in Tunis contributed to this report – 12/08/08
 [Mawassi Lahcen] Moroccan boxer Hicham Mesbahi (red) pummelled his way to an 11-3 victory over Colombia's Jonathan Romero in Olympic competition in Beijing on Tuesday. |
Day four of competition in the Beijing Olympic Games saw mixed results in a range of events, with one Moroccan boxer advancing in the tournament.
Bantamweight Hicham Mesbahi of Morocco beat Colombian Jonathan Romero on Tuesday (August 12th), winning on points (11-3). This is the third Olympic Games for Mesbahi, who competed in Athens and Sydney but has yet to earn a medal. He hopes to crown his career with a medal in Beijing before moving on to coaching in Morocco.
Moroccan heavyweight Mohammed Arjaoui, light flyweight Redouane Bouchtouk and heavyweight Mohammed Amanissi will fight on Tuesday evening.
Tunisian Alaa Sehili and Thato Batshegi of Botswana were the only two African boxers to win on Monday. Sehili advanced to the 1/8-finals in the 57kg category by defeating German Wilhelm Gratschow with a 14-5 score. Moroccan Mahdi Ouatine lost to Mongolian Enkhzorig Zorigtbaatar in the same category. And Moroccan lightweight boxer Tahar Tamsamani lost to Italian Domenico Valentino.
Also in the lightweight category, 2005 African champion Saifeddine Nejmaoui of Tunisia lost 10-2 to Alexey Tishchenko of Russia. Algerian Hamza Kramou, 2007 African champion, was defeated in the same category by Cuba's Yordenis Ugas.
Meanwhile, Tunisian flyweight boxer Walid Cherif said that while he was disappointed over the early exit of his teammates, he was in top form and felt "very concentrated and motivated". His confidence paid off with a 14-2 win over Australian Steven Sutherland on Tuesday. Cherif said: "I made a lot of attacks and counter attacks – I think my opponent should have done more counter attacks."
In the next round, which will be held on August 16th, Cherif will face 2005 world champion Korean Lee Oxong.
Algeria's only weightlifter, Leila Lassouani (63 kg), abandoned the competition after a successful 85kg snatch. Tunisian weightlifter Hanene Ourfelli came in 16th with 175 overall points.
In judo, Algeria's Kahina Saidi was defeated in the -63 kg round of 16 by Elisabeth Willeboordse of the Netherlands. Tunisian judoka Yousef Badra (-81kg) lost to Sardjan Maravich of Montenegro. Moroccan Safouane Attaf was dismissed in the second round of the 81kg competition after he lost to Britain's Burton Euan. He is the third Moroccan participant to be dismissed. Morocco still has a chance in Judo: Mohamed El Assri. He will face Algerian Amar Benikhlef today in 90kg.
In rowing, Algerians Mohamed Ryad Garidi and Kamel Ait Daoud took 6th place in men's double sculls.
Algerian swimmer Nabil Kebbab was eliminated from the 100m freestyle after posting a heat time of 49.38.33.
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internaute Posted 2008-08-12
The Moroccan boxer, Nhaila, was unfairly eliminated by the judges. I noticed that they mistakenly gave points to his opponent, thinking he was the Moroccan!!! Every time Nhaila got a blow in. the judges gave a point to Azerbaijan. What a farce!
saritalove 10 Posted 2008-08-13
There is an error in the article. Day 4: Mixed results for Maghreb Boxing. You said that Kahini Saidi has won. This is the opposite. You shouldn’t lie, ok? Bye, bye. I hope that Moroccans will win 1000 medals.
علي Posted 2008-08-18
The bias of referees against Maghreb and Arab countries exists not only in the Olympics but also in other sports (as it happened with the Algerian national team in the world cup with Germany and the Moroccan national team in the world cup with Brazil). Politics influence all the sectors. May God help Maghreb and Arabic sports.
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