China won two boxing gold medals on a historic day, not only for the Asian powerhouse but also for Mongolia.
Zou Shiming won China’s first ever Olympic boxing title at light-flyweight, before Badar-Uugan Enkhbat repeated the feat for Mongolia at bantamweight.
Zhang Xiaoping then added a second gold for the Chinese at light-heavyweight to ensure they topped the boxing medals table, ahead of traditional powers Cuba, the US and Russia.
PHOTO: AFP
Alexey Tishchenko’s gold at lightweight meant Russia were the only other nation to win more than one title, while Cuba incredibly failed to win a single gold medal and the US had a miserly one bronze medal to show for their efforts.
Zou, who began his sporting career in wushu, sent the home fans into ecstasy in the first final of the day as Mongolia’s Serdamba Purevdorj lasted just over one round before retiring with a shoulder injury.
The Chinese revealed he had adopted an interesting diet to prepare for these Games.
“While I’ve been in Beijing what I’ve been eating most is pizza and hamburgers,” Zou said. “I love Western food so I’ve had a lot of it. Chinese food tends to be so greasy so it’s better for me to eat Western food.”
Zhang’s victory was highly contentious as he beat Ireland’s Kenny Egan 11-7 in the final.
Zhang seemed to score several points off punches that didn’t land cleanly, meaning Egan was always playing catch-up and forced into taking risks in the final round that allowed Zhang to counter effectively to open up the four-point gap by the end.
“I shot two shots and they were in his favor, so he was getting points from my work,” Egan said.
China had a third finalist in Zhang Zhilei at super-heavyweight, but he was never at the races against world champion Roberto Cammarelle of Italy.
Cammarelle dominated from the opening bell and Zhang took several crunching blows to the jaw.
But he demonstrated admirable resistance until the fourth round when a short left hook dropped him to his knees, after which the referee mercifully put an end to his punishment.
After the controversies surrounding the scoring here, Cammarelle claimed that was something that never worried him.
“I could even have won with five Chinese judges,” he said.
Bakhyt Sarsekbayev of Kazakhstan was a dominant winner at welterweight, beating Cuba’s Carlos Banteaux 18-9.
Banteaux’s defeat meant that Cuba failed to win a single boxing gold at these Games despite qualifying eight fighters for the semi-finals.
They finished with four silver and four bronze, the first time they have failed to win a gold since 1968 — other than 1984 and 1988 when they didn’t compete.
Sarsekbayev scored at will with his crunching right hooks to the body and straight lefts right on the muzzle.
Tishchenko claimed a second straight Olympic gold medal as he beat France’s Daouda Sow 11-9 to win the lightweight title.
Tishchenko was the overwhelming favorite coming into the final as he won the featherweight division four years ago in Athens and was also a World Championship finalist in Chicago a year ago.
Sow had surprised Cuban 2005 world champion Yordenis Ugas in the semi-final.
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