From Africa, only Morocco qualified a boxer into last night’s finals, and only then because the fighter – 25-year-old bantamweight Widad Bertal – is a serial top-level campaigner having won gold at the African Games in 2023 and at the Arab Games the same year, and also having featured at previous IBA Women’s World Championship fights.

Bertal, an Olympian, also boasts two gold medals (Yaounde 2023, Kinshasa 2024) and a bronze (Maputo 2022) at the African Championships.

Kenya’s best performance here came from team captain Elizabeth Andiego, who was clearly robbed of her quarter-final match against China’s Wang Xiaomeng by Estonian referee Moris Punh.

Andiego was awarded a dummy cheque of $10,000 (Sh1.3 million) on Saturday night for a fifth-place finish, something that will brighten up Kenya’s camp and women’s boxing in the country generally.

The financial rewards from the International Boxing Association (IBA) will certainly encourage more women boxers to take up the sport seriously.

And Andiego, 38, remains positive, motivated by her achievements in the Serbian ring and in no way demoralized by the horrible refereeing here.

“Boxing is my life,” she aptly sums it up, and goes on to highlight that her 15 years of hard work and consistency in and out of the ring since her first global competition are, finally, paying off.

“First, I want to thank God for this far I have come. It’s through hard-work, determination and consistency over the years. It's not in vain. It's paying off now.

“It has been 15 years since my first World Championship, not giving up and pushing on every year. Thanks to IBA for introducing prize money, for this motivates boxers and it helps change one’s life… I’m so grateful.”

Andiego also remains grateful for the top level competition she was exposed to here, taking the questionable officiating in her stride, and as a learning experience: “The championship was competitive, despite some dubious officiating… we learn everyday so we move on to the next one, working on our mistakes and techniques to be better.”

So far, 2023 remains her highlight year.

“After missing out on the (Tokyo) Olympics, winning a gold medal at Mandela Cup and a silver medal at the African Championship in 2023 was my best year.”

Head coach Benjamin Musa – in charge of an eight-strong team at these championships - equally stresses the need for high quality competitions to sharpen Kenyan boxers.

“We need more exposure. It is only performances at such levels (as the World Championships) that will lift up our standards – we can only grow by fighting against the best at different tournaments, especially in the build-up towards such major championships,” Musa observes.

“There’s potential… If you look at our previous performances at the 2022 World Championships and compare to now, there’s a big improvement in our boxers against their opponents, which is encouraging to us.

“Two years ago, we couldn’t cope with these kinds of opponents. It would have been RSC, Round One, but now we are giving as much as we are receiving,” Musa reflected on the positives.

“This has been a good performance that will encourage the young female boxers coming up. They’ve been watching the livestreams and are able to see the improvements.”

The Kenyan squad leaves Serbia tomorrow and are expected back in Nairobi on Wednesday morning, ready to get back to the drawing board, with a competitive domestic circuit an important part of the development agenda.
“That’s (absence of competitive league) where we have a problem,” Musa noted.

“We still don’t have the depth in women’s boxing which means we need many more competitions against our neighbours, and against the likes of Morocco, Tunisia and Asian nations that are good in women’s boxing.

“The last competitive fights our women boxers were involved in was way back in October last year at the African Championships – that’s too long to stay away from competition, especially before coming to a World Championship.

“We really need to expose our women fighters… the potential is there and I’m sure they are likely to bring us the medals even before the male boxers.

“Even after being eliminated here, Kenyan boxers have been called upon for sparring sessions with already-qualified boxers from other nations which is encouraging because this is a journey.”