Boxing golds evenly shared
Athletes from Thailand, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Russia topped the podium in the four events that rounded off Wednesday’s boxing action at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018.
The first gold medal of the evening session at the Youth Olympic Park’s Oceania Pavilion was awarded to Thailand’s Atichai Phoemsap, who earned a unanimous 5-0 win over Ukraine’s Taras Bondarchuk in the men’s lightweight final. Azerbaijan’s Nurlan Safarov had earlier outpointed Egypt’s Marwan Mamdouh Mohamed Madboly to win the bronze.
The men’s middleweight medals were then decided, with Keno Machado of Brazil producing a commanding performance to beat Algeria’s Farid Douibi 5-0 and claim the middleweight gold in style. Thailand’s Weerapoon Jongjoho got the better of Jancen Poutoa of Samoa to take the last place on the podium.
One of the day’s main attractions was the men’s heavyweight gold medal bout between Kazakhstan’s Aibek Oralbay and Algeria’s Mohamed Amine Hacid. The Kazakh fighter emerged a comprehensive 5-0 winner, with all five judges scoring the fight 30-27 in his favour. Puerto Rico’s Alvin Canales saw off Czech Republic’s Daniel Mikustak in the battle for the bronze.
In the final bout of the evening, Russia’s Anatasiia Shamonova earned a 3-2 split decision to beat France’s Tallya Brillaux to the women’s middleweight gold. “I was really stressing about the fight and I wasn’t able to get much rest,” said Shamonova afterwards. “Luckily I managed to get the best out of myself and win the gold.”
The bronze went to Kazakhstan’s Nadezhda Ryabets, who beat Algeria’s Ichrak Chaib.