Sierra Leone Female Boxer, Zainab Keita won a her first Gold medal last night at the AFBC Zone II Boxing Championship Tournament.

The inaugural Zone II tournament concluded yesterday at the Bintumani Conference Center in Freetown.

Keita defeated Seynabou Ndiaye of Senegal in the final bout to give Sierra Leone their first gold medal in the tournament, adding to the four sliver and two bronze medals won by the host nation.

Before the tournament, Zainab assured Sierra Leoneans that at the end of the tournament, they will celebrate another achievement, adding that it is not strange to her to give laurels to her motherland.

Canadian female boxer, Sara Haghighat-joo, also represented Sierra Leone in the tournament, and said that she would like to help change Female Boxing in Sierra Leone.

Speaking during a press briefing held at the Bintumani Conference Center, the three-time Irish and Canadian boxing champion said the country will see success in female boxing in the not-too-distant future, expressing her determination to give her all to Sierra Leone.

Twenty-seven-year-old Sara, who’s born in Canada to Iranian parents, was able to trace her root back to Sierra Leone, from where her great grandparents hailed.

She explained that “I found out that I had a distant relative who is an African, and we looked into it. My great great grandmother was absolutely from Sierra Leone.

“So I was able to get the citizenship, having applied for a passport and got one. I am so proud to fight for Sierra Leone,” she said.

Eleven West African countries out of sixteen registered countries participated in the Championships as the five-day tourney ended on Thursday.