Hinda wins gold at IMMAF Africa Championships

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The Namibian Mix Martial Arts team won one gold and two bronze medals at the just-ended International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) Africa Championship held in Johannesburg, South Africa, over the weekend.

The 2022 Africa championships, which were IMMAF’s first closed tournament on the continent, were open only to amateur athletes from African nations and were held from 28 to 30 April 2022.

Nations that participated in the championships are hosts South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Namibia picked up its first IMMAF gold medal through Veja Hinda, the featherweight standout who was in fine form throughout the tournament and won three fights via finish.

Hinda made his intentions of winning a gold medal clear in the semi-finals when he finished off his opponent from Mauritius, Geraldo Moïse, with a walk-off head-kick, scoring a highlight-reel knockout to set up a final clash with Nicolaas Vermaak who thwarted Angola’s Elizandro Sousa with a spinning attack in the first round.

In the final, Hinda defeated Vermaak with an arm-bar submission after just one minute of the second round. With that win, Hinda was crowned the 2022 African champion in the featherweight category of the IMMAF.

Other Namibians who also collected medals at this championship are Geraldo Bok and Jason Beukes whom each won a bronze medal in their respective categories.

A total of 11 new champions were crowned at the Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC) Performance Institute at the end of the IMMAF Africa Championship.

Hosts South Africa finished the IMMAF Africa Championships as the winner of the overall medals with 17 medals, which are five gold, seven silver, and five bronze. Angola finished second with 13 medals, which are four gold, two silver and seven bronze

while Namibia took third place with three medals.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency