England’s boxing team won five gold medals as they dominated in the ring at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Nicola Adams, Joseph Joyce, Savannah Marshall, Scott Fitzgerald and England team captain Antony Fowler all captured gold.
Host nation Scotland, Australia and Northern Ireland all won two titles, while Canada and New Zealand took home one gold each.
Photo: AFP
Olympic champion Adams started the gold rush after winning by the narrowest of margins in the women’s flyweight final.
Adams had started the bout as favorite, but was met by a barrage of punches from Northern Ireland’s Michaela Walsh as soon as the opening bell sounded.
The English boxer recovered well to take the second and third rounds, before Walsh edged the last. With two judges ruling it a draw, and each picking a different boxer as their preferred winner, it was left to the third judge to shade the result in Adams’ favor.
The 31-year-old has now set her sights on defending her Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro.
“She was quite tricky, but again I’ve managed to create history,” Adams said after becoming the first ever female Commonwealth boxing champion. “Having this gold medal makes all the hard work worth it. I’ve been thinking of this since the London 2012 Olympics. It’s on to Rio now.”
Joyce regained the super heavyweight crown for England with a unanimous victory in the battle of the big hitters with Australia’s Joseph Goodall.
Welterweight Fitzgerald claimed a comfortable victory over Mandeep Jangra of India, who claimed four silver medals.
The Indian’s unconventional style saw him get off to a poor start as Fitzgerald’s blows soon began to find their target and he had Jangra on the canvas three times in two rounds.
A change of tactics in the third round saw an improvement in fortunes, but it was too late for Jangra.
“The start of any fight is critical, especially at this level, and a bad start for me ended in defeat,” Jangra said.
More bad news for India followed as Vijender Vijender was defeated by England’s Fowler in the middleweight division.
World champion Marshall added a fourth England gold as she defeated Canada’s Ariane Fortin following a split decision in the women’s middleweight final.
New Zealand won their first medal in the ring since Michael Kenny’s super heavyweight win in Auckland in 1990 when David Nyika triumphed in the light heavyweight final with an unanimous victory over Kennedy St Pierre of Mauritius.
David Light could not add a second gold for New Zealand as Canadian Samir el-Mais triumphed in a closely contested heavyweight final following a split decision.
The women’s lightweight final saw Australia’s Shelley Watts crowned champion. A strong start from Laishram Devi saw the Indian claim the first round, but the Australian hit back to dominate the final three rounds to win an unanimous decision.
In the final of the men’s light flyweight India’s Devendro Laishram lost to defending champion Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland, who collected his country’s first gold of the Games.
“It was a fair result. I lost to him in the Olympics in London in the quarter-finals and I hope I can beat him next time we fight,” Laishram said.
More gold was to come for Northern Ireland in the men’s bantamweight.
Michael Conlan was only passed fit to fight on Saturday morning after suffering a deep cut above his eye in his semi-final.
However, the Northern Ireland boxer showed no ill effects from his injury as he slugged it out with England’s Qais Ashfaq on his way to being crowned champion.
The roof at the Hydro was raised as Scottish boxer Charlie Flynn’s victory in the men’s lightweight final was met with a wall of noise and an outpouring of emotion.
The atmosphere was electric by the time fellow Scot Josh Taylor walked out for his light welterweight bout with Namibia’s Junias Jonas. Taylor seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd on his way to gold and an unanimous victory.
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