Arab boxers just claimed four of the 39 available Olympic berths at a qualification tournament.
Representing 92 nations, 375 boxers met from June 16-25 at the AIBA 2016 Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Azerbaijan. The tournament gave amateur boxers one last chance to earn a qualifying ticket to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Iraq, Algeria, Qatar and Morocco claimed four of the 39 available Olympic berths.
Iraq’s Waheed Abdul-Ridha and Morocco’s Abdeljalil Abouhamda won bronze medals for the middleweight (75 kg) and heavyweight (91 kg) events in Azerbaijan, respectively. However, only Abdul-Ridha qualified to Rio 2016 since Olympic quota spots were allotted to the top five boxers in his weight class, while a single spot was available for Abouhamda’s division, reserved for the heavyweight gold medalist.
They were both undefeated in the preliminary rounds and the quarterfinals. Abdul-Ridha lost to Ireland’s Michael O’reilly in the semifinals, while Abouhamda lost his Olympic 2016 chance to Poland's Pawel Jakubowski.
Algerian Fahem Hammachi, Qatari Hakan Erseker and Moroccon Hasan Saada qualified to the bantamweight (56 kg), lightweight (60 kg) and light-heavyweight (81 kg) events at the 2016 Olympics by ranking fifth place in the respective categories in the 2016 World Qualifiers.
Fahem Hammachi beat opponents from Iran and Denmark in the preliminary stage, but lost in the quarter-finals to Ukraine’s Mykola Butsenko. Similarly, German-born Hakan Erseker defeated Thailand’s Pachanya Longchin in the preliminaries and proceeded to the quarter-finals, where he lost to Enrico Lacruz from the Netherlands.
Additionally, Hasan Saada qualified to the quarter-finals after winning against South African and Mexican competitors. Unfortunately, he was then defeated by Azerbaijan’s Teymur Mammadov.
Hakan Erseker will be the first boxer to ever represent Qatar in the Olympic Games. On the other hand, Iraq, Algeria and Morocco are Olympic boxing veterans.
Iraq and Morocco made their boxing debut at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and Algeria followed them eight years later, at the 1968 Mexico Games. Since then, Morocco has won three bronze Olympic medals for boxing, while Algeria has earned one gold and five bronze medals.
However, Iraq has not found Olympic success in boxing, as it currently has a single Olympic medal, a bronze collected by weightlifter Abdul Wahid Aziz in 1960.