Cindy Ngamba shames each hate-filled thug who seeks to divide Britain

At 4pm on Sunday, from the seclusion of the five-star holiday retreat in Cyprus where he is evading arrest, the racist attention-seeker Tommy Robinson tweeted about Bolton, fuelling the kind of disorder there which is shaking so many of our communities to the core.

By pure coincidence, precisely two minutes later a young boxer from that town stepped into a ring in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of north-west Paris, to compete and conduct herself in a way which laughed in the face of those, like Robinson, who seek to divide and stoke hate.

Cindy Ngamba crossed herself as she walked out into an Olympic arena where she fought a French opponent, Davina Michel. Boos rained down on Ngamba before she had even raised a glove. She didn’t flinch.

The significance of her winning that 75kg quarter-final bout perhaps only became clear to the 25-year-old upon stepping into the mixed zone, where American, French, Italian and British journalists clamoured to get their questions in amid the din of the stadium sound system.

It was a bunfight in there because Ngamba fights for the Refugee Olympic Team. Her win means she is guaranteed to become their first-ever medallist when she fights Panama’s Atheyna Bylon on Wednesday night.

Cindy Ngamba crossed herself as she walked out into an Olympic arena where she fought a French opponent, Davina Michel. Boos rained down on Ngamba (pictured above)

The significance of her winning that 75kg quarter-final bout only became clear to her upon stepping into the mixed zone where journalists clamoured to get their questions

The strains of Ngamba’s Bolton accent were unmistakable in that frantic five-minute mixed zone exchange, and she certainly didn’t forget the town which shaped her, as she spoke of friends she knew had been rooting for her there.

She was remembering the Bolton Lads & Girls Club, a place where the town’s young people have been learning to grow up together and co-exist for more than a century. There were more than 4,000 active members at the last count.

All colours and creeds, though no one feels the need to reference that. For Ngamba, it was simply the place where, more than 10 years ago, she first clapped eyes on a boxing gym, loved the smell, the feel, the sound of the place, and from where she has never looked back.

Ngamba was also remembering Bolton College, where they consider her one of their own, and the University of Bolton, where she graduated with a BA in Crime and Criminal Justice last year.

The Bolton News, always a most excellent barometer of the town, wanted their readers to know all this. ‘Messages of support for Bolton boxer’ stated one of their headlines at the weekend, beneath an appeal for calm from the town’s leaders ahead of the disorder and violence they knew was coming.

It can’t be said Ngamba’s path through life in Britain has been easy. She and her elder brother were sent from their native Cameroon to live with their father aged 10. Speaking English was a struggle for a time.

Neither parent seems to have been a fixture. Ngamba was arrested during a routine appointment at a Manchester immigration office in 2019, detained and faced the threat of deportation to West Africa, having been unable to produce documents, though she has now secured refugee status.

The strains of Ngamba’s Bolton accent were unmistakable in that frantic five-minute mixed zone exchange, and she certainly didn’t forget the town which shaped her

She is competing for the Refugee Olympic Team because she still awaits citizenship and a passport from the country which has been her home for 15 years

She is competing for the Refugee Olympic Team because she still awaits citizenship and a passport from the country which has been her home for 15 years.

It is hard not to be moved by a short clip of Ngamba on the Instagram feed of GB Boxing, who have coached her for more than two years. ‘Every human always has a hardship in life,’ she says. ‘If you’re able to look past that feeling of feeling sorry for yourself, you can have an understanding of the obstacles that are going to come during the journey. You just have to get on with it, really.’

She has paid her way through part-time work in a warehouse and as a cleaner.

They had never had a female boxer before her at that Bolton club before she pitched up and for a time — too long, she says — they didn’t let her advance beyond skipping.

When she refused to go away, the coaches started showing her moves; how to slip punches. At 18, Ngamba became too old to attend the Lads & Girls club and moved to the Halliwell ABC gym, set amid Bolton’s terraced backstreets.

GB Boxing coaches describe watching this young woman develop in so many ways under their tutelage. ‘She’s grown in strength, not just as a boxer but as a person as well,’ says one of them, Joe Hale.

To all intents and purposes, she is a part of the British team, training every week in Sheffield with the Podium Squad, the full-time GB Boxing group who compete internationally, though she does not access the same UK Sport funding because she is not a British citizen.

Ngamba pictured with Natasha Jonas after sparring during her training for the Olympics

The GB Boxing team have seconded a coach, Darren Maher, to the IOC refugee team to be lead coach in her corner here.

In that mixed zone last Sunday, French journalists, knowing Ngamba had lived her first 11 years in French-speaking Cameroon, asked her to speak in their language. She wasn’t sure if she still could, she said, before attempting to do so, breaking off at one stage to ask, ‘What’s the word for “challenge?”’?

Gold, silver or bronze, Ngamba’s name and her image will be flashed around the world on Wednesday night. Bolton will be right behind her.

Icon Souness bares soul in new podcast

It’s been a privilege to spend two days with Graeme Souness, going over the story of his life in a series of interviews for a new six-part Daily Mail podcast series, Everything I Know About Me.

His sense of the fragility of life took him into so much reflection, some of it still a source of pain. The death of his mother Elizabeth, for example, which he heard of while on the Liverpool team bus. He learned of it during a phone call when the bus stopped and was late back aboard, leading to a dressing-down from the coaches.

It’s been a privilege to spend two days with Graeme Souness, going over the story of his life in a series of interviews for a new six-part Daily Mail podcast series, Everything I Know About Me

When word of the nature of the call filtered down the bus, the tone changed. Joe Fagan sat with Souness for the rest of the journey, offering consolation.

They were the hardest of times in which some of the most uncompromising players competed, yet there was more empathy than you might imagine.