Africa Zone 3 Boxing light-heavyweight champion Elizabeth Andiego will be out to cap off her stellar career with a maiden Commonwealth gold when she dares Australian Anne Caitlin Parker at the National Exhibition Centre Hall 4 in Birmingham today.
Andiego switched to the middleweight division at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and cruised to the quarters without breaking a sweat after being handed a bye in the preliminaries on Saturday.
She will be the third Kenyan in the ring after Hit Squad captain Nick Okoth bade the tournament farewell on Saturday. Bantamweight Shaffi Bakari was in action on Tuesday.
Andiego, 35, will look to replicate her sterling performance at the Africa Zone 3 Championship in Kinshasa Congo in March, where she punched furiously to the golden podium.
She pulverized Tekasala Malewu of the Democratic Republic of Congo on her way to the momentous glory. She has attributed her meteoric rise to proper preparation and hard work.
She believes the experience she gleaned from the Kinshasa trip has set her on course for a successful medal hunt at the forthcoming World Championship and the Commonwealth Games.
The seasoned pugilist is elated to have marked her return to the ring in style after a past harrowing procedure conducted on her left leg limited her prowess in the ring.
The hard-hitting boxer escaped death by a whisker in 2015 when she was caught up in a grisly road accident while riding on a motorbike.
In a past interview, Andiego said she intends to immerse herself fully in nurturing budding talent, but only after bagging a medal in Birmingham.
Andiego boasts of a wealth of experience, having first fought in 2010 in Barbados during the World Championship.
In 2014, she went to Glasgow Commonwealth Games but crashed out early in her first bout.
Her experience in major competitions includes the Commonwealth Games, All African Games, Olympic Games, World Boxing Championship, and Olympic qualifying tournaments in Barbados and Beijing China.
