Christine Ongare won Kenya another rare bronze medal in boxing at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia today morning.
It was bad day for champion Julius Yego who bowed out of the championships.
Ongare, the only Kenyan boxer at the club games, won the bronze in women’s 56km after qualifying for the semis following a quarter final knock-out win over Sri Lanka’s Dulani Jayasinghe on Thursday.
Ongare had lost the first round to the Sri Lankan, but she landed heavy blows on her opponent in the second round which saw Jayasinghe throw in the towel after injury.
In the semi’s the Northern Irish boxer won by a unanimous 5-0 decision, having accumulated maximum points from the all the judges in all three rounds.
In the field, Commonwealth champion Julius Yego failed to make it to the final. It was hitherto unknown Alex Kiprotich who just managed to make it with his 74.88m throw.
Yego finished sixth in his qualifying group, throwing a best of 74.55m,
Kiprotich, who was in the first qualifying group, had his best throw on the second attempt in between 70.03 and 73.67 attempts.
And finally, all three Kenyans sailed to the finals of the 1500m while the 4x400m team also earned a berth at Saturday’s final.
Reigning World Champion Elijah Manangoi and silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot won their respective heats. Cheruiyot clocked 3:42.95 while Manangoi clocked 3:46.82.
Youngster Kumari Taki finished third in his heat but still managed to earn an automatic qualification slot after clocking 3:43.93.
The Kenyan 4x400m team meanwhile finished second in the heats after clocking 3:13.52 behind winners Botswana who timed 3:05.01