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France's Hallab eases through, will face Russell

Mongolia's Byamba Tuvshinbat, right, lands a punch on Park Kwan-soo of South Korea in the Light Welterweight 64kg class at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago on Friday. Park won 13-9. PHOTO: AP

France's bantamweight Ali Hallab put together a dominant performance at the World Boxing Championships on Friday, defeating Turkmenistan's Allaberdy Ishankuliyeve 20-0 to move into the next round of the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Hallab will next face US fighter Gary Russell, with the pair having shared the bronze medal at the 2005 Championships.

Russell came out swinging against Peter Moyshenzon of Israel, knocking down his opponent within the first thirty seconds of the match.

Russell has broken both of his hands in the past, so he took some of the power off his punches after the first round. He still managed to outscore his opponent by 20 points in the second round, winning the match 21-1.

The tournament continued without incident after Thursday's report that three athletes, two Ugandans and one Armenian, were missing after leaving their teams.

Edwards Akora of Uganda, who lost a light welterweight bout against France's Alexis Vastine on Friday, said his teammates "never gave an indication" they were going to leave. He added that perhaps they had moved on to "greener pastures."

The top eight finishers in the light flyweight to light heavyweight divisions and the top four from the heavyweight and super heavyweight classes will qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Heavyweights Eichin Alizade of Azerbaijan, Ukraine's Denys Poyatsyka and Russia's Rakhim Chakhkeiv stopped their opponents on Friday, but Olympic bantamweight runner-up Worapoj Petchkoom didn't fare as well.

Thailand's Petchkoom lost to Hungary's David Oltvanyi.

The third-ranked Alizade, the world runner-up in 2005, needed just 15 seconds to beat Deivi Julio Blanco of Colombia.

The others at least worked up a sweat.

Fifth-ranked Poyatsyka drew a loud "Uk-raine" chant when he stopped Latvia's Eduards Krasnevics with a blow to the head in the second round and the hard-hitting Chakheiv stopped Aruba's Evan Nedd with a shot to the head in the second round.

Eleventh-ranked heavyweight Clemente Russo of Italy outpointed the Czech Republic's Lukas Viktora 17-6, while Montegro's Milorad Gajovic beat No. 13 seed Vedran Dipalo 22-12.

Elsewhere in the bantamweight division, Ukraine's Maksym Tretyak beat Asian Games silver medalist Han Soon-chul. Tretyak counterpunched effectively in the first two rounds, which helped him to build up a small lead against his opponent.

Tretyak continued to look stronger and faster than Han in the third round and ultimately won 35-21.

In the middleweight class, German Rustam Rahimov, a bronze medalist at the 2003 worlds and 2004 Olympics and a runner-up at the last worlds two years ago, was eliminated by Kazakhstan's Mirzhan Rakhimzhanov.

Rahimov fell behind early and never recovered against Rakhimzhanov, whose capitalized on his speed to advance 19-12.

Light welterweight Javier Molina of the US also progressed, using his superior reach to jump out to an early lead against Azerbaijan's Emil Maharramov. By the second round he had built up a 19-5 lead and ultimately beat the 2005 bronze medalist 27-10.

The 17-year-old Molina needs one more win to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
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