James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan 8-3 in a quarter-final bout yesterday to clinch Britain’s third medal, while Vijender Kumar earned the first boxing medal in India’s history.
Cuba’s last two fighters also reached the semi-finals with one-sided victories, guaranteeing eight medals for the sport’s now-unquestioned power.
Flyweight Andris Laffita earned a marquee meeting with Russia’s Georgy Balakshin, while middleweight Emilio Correa emulated his medal-winning father with a win over Uzbekistan’s Elshod Rasulov.
PHOTO: AP
But nobody looked better than Degale in his stunning upset of Artayev, the Athens welterweight champion who beat vaunted Russian Matvey Korobov in his last fight. Artayev’s loss to Degale, a talented but unpedigreed middleweight, was even more stunning — particularly since Degale’s solid performance left no doubt.
While Degale celebrated by dropping to his knees and raising his gloves to the sky, Artayev’s coach held his stricken fighter in a touching embrace after the defeat.
After his win, Deagle strolled through the back hallway at the Workers’ Gymnasium bellowing a tuneless song of his own composition.
The lyrics were about winning an Olympic boxing medal and being very happy about it.
“I’m going down in history,” Degale said. “Whatever happens on the weekend, I’m going to be in the history book.”
In the evening’s last bout, Vijender Kumar entered the ring to a chant of “jiayou India” from his Mandarin-savvy fans and the 22-year-old middleweight thoroughly controlled his bout with Ecuador’s Carlos Gongora, winning 9-4.
India have never won a boxing medal in 12 Olympics beginning in 1948 and the notoriously underachieving Olympic team only won its first individual gold earlier in these Olympics in a shooting sport.
After getting three fighters to the quarter-finals, Vijender was India’s last chance after two teammates from the same town slipped on the cusp of a medal.
About 90 minutes before Vijender’s victory, Jitender Kumar stayed close but could not match the reflexes and experience of Balakshin, the three-time European champion who clinched his first Olympic medal. The arena was remarkably lively for their bout, with Indian flags waving in the lower seats and hundreds of chanting Russians filling the upper reaches.
“There was no pressure on me at all,” Jitender said. “The most troublesome thing were the 10 stitches I have on my chin. I was very worried if I get a hit and started oozing blood, I may be stopped by the referee from fighting. It was a psychological thing which played its part.”
With heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko watching from the stands, Ireland clinched their third medal of the Games with middleweight Darren John Sutherland’s 11-1 thrashing of Venezuela’s Alfonso Blanco. The Irish still have not won a medal at any sport in Beijing, but will take a solid haul from the boxing this weekend.
Sutherland will fight Degale next and the two already have a lengthy history of at least five competitive bouts. Degale already began a bit of rubbish-talking, claiming that “with the skill I’ve got, I should beat him every day.”
With British light heavyweight Tony Jeffries also fighting Ireland’s Kenny Egan tomorrow, Workers’ Gymnasium should be hopping with British Isles partisanship — and hopefully with a few extra security guards as well.
Italy’s Vincenzo Picardi left the arena on his coach’s shoulders after beating Tunisia’s Walid Cherif to clinch a medal. Italy have already clinched medals for their two heaviest fighters, world champions Roberto Cammarelle and Clemente Russo, but rarely do well in the lighter classes.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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