Gicharu takes in Mongolian punishment to exit Rio 2016

Gicharu takes in Mongolian punishment to exit Rio 2016

Brave Commonwealth 2010 Games silver medallist, Benson Gicharu Njagiru took heavy punishment from Mongolian teenager, Tsendbaatar Erdenebat, to exit the Rio 2016 Olympics men 56kg bantam weight competition by a unanimous 3-0 verdict on Wednesday night.

It was nine minutes of boxing master class from the winner who advanced to the round of 32 having had Gicharu down in the canvas 2:26 into the second round for the decisive knock down that took victory beyond the veteran.

“Thank you so much to all of you my friends for wishing me success. It’s unfortunate I lost my fight. The game plan didn’t work as I expected. Deep inside I knew I was going to go past preliminaries.

“‪#‎Gods_confidence.well but thats it,despite the outcome am satisfied with the results.its by Gods grace I made it this far. Let’s join in hand to pray for Rayton Okwiri who is still on the run.‪ #‎God_above_everything,” Gicharu wrote on Facebook in a post that hit over 409 ‘likes’ by morning.

In truth, the bout started well for the 2014 Commonwealth bronze winner and now two-time Olympian when he landed two solid punches to his opponents’ face midway through in the opening round when he had Erdenebat on the ropes.

But as he followed through for the killer blow, Gicharu left himself exposed to a powerful left counter-punch that had him spitting with the three judges awarding the round 10-9, 10-9, and 10-9.

The key moment came 34 seconds into the second when shortly after he had been cautioned by the ref for hitting under the belt, Erdenebat struck against the Delhi 2010 silver winner who had height and reach advantage but could not match the punching power of the 5′ 6” boxer.

As if affronted by the warning of being deducted a point, the Mongolian launched into attack, landing a combination of punches that had Gicharu reeling before he delivered that bone crunching left hook that had the Kenyan down but he quickly got up before the count.

On resuming, Gicharu went in to seek the knock down or better still, a blow that would KO his challenger to win the fight but his smart opponent kept his defence locked tight and gave as much as he received. The judges gave the Mongolian 10-9, 10-8 and 10-9 to put him in firmly in control.

Using the hook effectively, the 19 year-old then closed out the bout in the third, cruising through the final three minutes by using excellent footwork and defence to keep the charging Kenyan at bay.

At the end of it all, two judges agreed with him 10-9 and 10-9 with the third scoring it 9-10 in favour of the 31 year-old Kenyan who had the height and reach advantage but could not match the punching power of his 5′ 6” opponent.

It was only thing that went to Gicharu’s favour on the night as he became the second Kenyan to exit the boxing competition after Peter Mungai (light fly) 35, bowed out at the quarters at the hands of another 19 year-old, Cuban world champion Joahnys Argilagos.

It was a sobering end to the Olympics journey for Gicharu who declined Qatari citizenship to remain a Kenyan fighter and used his cost to travel to Venezuela to make the Rio Games.

His drawn out qualification campaign ultimately cost him the energy and speed he needed to deal with much younger opponents who made it to Brazil using the conventional route of their regional qualifiers.

It was a sobering moment not only for the boxer who captured hearts by his determination to fight at the biggest stage in sport but also for a nation whose notorious reputation of ill preparations also took a severe beating in that ring.

Tags:

olympics Rio 2016 Benson Gicharu Njagiru Bantamweight Men 56kg Tsendbaatar Erdenebat

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