Three local boxers bag gold, make history at SA champs
Jano Mbuyi, Jenovic Mbuyi and Morgan Hunter from the Krugersdorp West Boxing Club held the club and town's name high at the South African Boxing Championships in early October.
Three talented boxers from the Krugersdorp West Boxing Club recently came back from the South African Boxing Championships not only victorious, but having made history.
Jano Mbuyi, Jenovic Mbuyi and Morgan Hunter all competed in the SA championships in Kuilsrivier in the Western Cape from October 5 to 9, and all three of them bagged gold medals and the team trophy for Gauteng – a first in 11 years.
Jano, 18, who has been boxing since 2016 and fought in the under 75kg weight class actually expected the win.
“I trained hard and the fights weren’t that difficult. They weren’t my toughest opponents,” he said with a smile.
What he enjoys most about boxing are the benefits, like being able to travel to different tournaments.
Jenovic, another 18-year-old has been boxing since the end of 2016. He fought in the under 71kg weight class and explained that meeting new people has been one of the things he enjoyed most about boxing. It lets him challenge himself and it has taught him discipline.
Talking about the championships he said he was really nervous, especially when he found out that he had three fights while some had only two.
His first fight was decided by a total knockout, while his second fight was against a guy from KwaZulu-Natal.
“And those guys are strong,” he said laughingly.
Then when he came to his final fight he knew he wanted to win.
“I knew he wanted to win as badly as I did, but I knew I worked hard for this so I just kept pushing myself.”
Last of the gold winners was 24-year-old Morgan who has been boxing for around six years and fought in the under 86kg weight class.
He said he expected to win at the SA championships and that he only had the one fight because of the number of contenders in his weight class.
“I told myself I was going to make it, and I made sure I came out on top.”
More good news for the club is that another three boxers, Ryan Botha, Duncan Graaff and Miguel Charlez will compete at the Gauteng Championships on October 22 and 23.
