Kenya’s Edwin Okong’o beat Moroccan Yassine Elouarz to win the middle weight boxing 75kg title at the ongoing Africa Games in Accra, Ghana.
The victory ended Kenya’s 17 year old record for the country to win gold in boxing after Suleiman Bilal won the title at the African Games since 2007 in Algiers, Algeria
At 32, Okong’o won the bout 3-1 after beating Tunisian Helal Mohamed Habib in a middleweight (71-75kg) fight to seal his ticket to the semi-finals where he outfought Algeria’s Ahmed Abdelrraouf Ghazi to set up the meeting with the Tunisian.
Okong’o lives the family name in boxing that has Nick Okoth and 1998 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Absolom Okinyi.
The gold was the second medal for Kenya after Amina Martha bagged silver after losing to Nigeria’s Kareem Shukura in the women’s 54kg bantamweight category on Thursday.
Kenya is now 10th on the medal standings with 35, being eight gold, seven silver and 20 bronze with one more medal expected on Saturday March 23.