After years of toiling in the gym at Police Depot in Mathare and Kariobangi Social Hall to achieve her biggest dream of featuring in the Olympics, Christine Ongare is now just nine minutes away from accomplishing her fairy tale mission.
The diminutive flyweight boxer will take to the ring against Ugandan Catherine Nanziri in Dakar, on Saturday evening knowing that victory will see her book her ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“This is a fight I have prepared forever since I took up boxing, and God willing I will emerge victoriously,” she said.
The two East African will engage in a ‘box off’ to take the third slot set aside for the women flyweight division after they were both defeated in the semi-finals.
Ongare said she had recovered from her disappointing defeat to Moroccan Cheddar Rabab.
“I was obviously downbeat after he fights, I started slowly and never really recovered well but I learnt my lesson and I am going to use that experience to qualify for Tokyo,” remarked Ongare.
A win for her will see her join team captain Nick Okoth as the only two boxers with direct tickets to Japan from the African Olympics qualifying tournament.
2008 Beijing Olympian, Okoth will also be in action in the men’s featherweight finals against Zambian Everisto Mulenga.
