Suleiman Bilali

Suleiman Bilali, the African champion for the past five years, will miss the Olympics after a robbery aggravated an injury sustained in a road accident.

Country: Kenya
Event: Boxing

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No Kenyan boxer has won the Olympic boxing medal since the late Robert Napunyi Wangila became the first African gold medallist in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.

But the hopes of the country was triggered by light flyweight champion, Suleiman Bilali, who had not lost a single match in Africa for five years. The good run can be attributed to his skillful approach to the game that classifies him among the top five light-flyweight boxers in the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) rankings.

Bilali missed an Olympic medal in Sydney 2000 after he lost the quarter-final bout to the eventual gold medal winner, Lozano Munoz of Spain.

But he will be missing the Olympics after a robbery aggravated an injury sustained in a road accident.

He won the gold at the All Africa Games in 2003 and was warming up for the big one at Athens. As a fifth-ranked player in his division, he was confident of gaining a medal in Greece. But the robbery has robbed him off any chance of competing at Athens.

His absence means Kenya will only be represented by one boxer at the Olympics, the featherweight David Munyasia.