JONAS Junias Jonas completed a successful campaign at the African Olympic qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal, after winning the gold medal on Friday.
He had already qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games after beating Nadir Abelhaq of Morocco 3-2 in the semifinals, but on Friday he was in supreme form to win the gold medal with a 4-1 victory against Richarno Colin of Mauritius.
Afterwards, Jonas told olympicchannel.com that he expected to do well after his previous successes at the African Championships.
"It feels great even though it’s not my first winning at this stage. This is my seventh African title. It’s always the same for me at the qualifiers, so the feeling is mutual.
"I was in the U.S. about a month ago training at the Olympic centre, I was sparring there with the likes of the USA, Great Britain and Italy, and there is a big difference. You cannot compare that kind of boxing with this boxing. So these guys must step up otherwise we won’t make it at the Olympic Games,” he said.
“Now I am going back home and will keep it local, we will maybe get two coaches from abroad. I want the gold medal obviously at Tokyo 2020. I haven’t changed a bit from Rio, it was just the circumstances that I was kept away and didn’t train for almost a week but that was just it,” he added.
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