Despite having metal plates and screws fixed in her leg, Elizabeth Andiego is yet to throw in the towel in the boxing ring.
The Kenyan middleweight pugilist snapped her leg in an accident along Kangundo Road in 2015 after the motorbike she was riding on collided head-on with a motor vehicle.
The incident left her battling for her life and struggling to recuperate at Kenyatta National Hospital, where she lay writhing in great pain for a whole month. Andiego says she is now determined to put all the mishap behind her and regain her form ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
"I was from a training session and had boarded a motorbike when we suddenly rammed into an oncoming vehicle," said Andiego.
"I was admitted at Kenyatta Hospital and later underwent surgery," she added.
Elizabeth further said she is now forced to juggle between her job and training with the national team because she has a 16-year-old son, Rodrigues Andiego whose immediate needs she must cater for.
Rodrigues seems to be keen on following in her mother's footsteps and the two have been training together at a gym in Kayole under veteran boxing coach Stephen 'Valdez' Ochieng.
Andiego will be banking on her vast experience to propel her to a medal podium in Tokyo if she makes the cut to the event.
Despite a medal and title drought, Andiego has been consistent in her quest for a maiden title ever since she set foot in the ring for her first international task.
Her first international assignment was in Barbados and a couple of years later, she was battling out in the Olympics held in China in 2012.
She proceeded to Glasgow, Scotland for the 2014 and also got a chance to fight at the the 2018 Commonwealth games in Australia.
In 2019, she participated in the All Africa Games in Morocco. Andiego says that her best experience in the ring was during the 2012 Olympic Games.
"Although I never made it past the first round, I gathered a wealth of experience that has made me who I am today," she said.
Born August 21, 1986, in Nairobi, Andiego kicked off her career in boxing when she was 21. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed in the women's middleweight contest, but was defeated in the first round.
She originally participated in taekwondo, but switched to boxing in 2007. She coaches at BoxGirls Nairobi, to interest women of all ages in boxing.
At the Olympic qualification event in Beijing, she lost to Lien Lotte of Norway, and therefore did not qualify for the 2012 Olympics. However, AIBA overturned the decision allowing Andiego to compete at the Olympics.
