Taiwanese boxer Chen Nien-chin, a bronze medalist at last year’s Paris Olympics, on Thursday claimed gold in the women’s 65kg division at the World Boxing Cup in India.
Chen defeated reigning champion Dione Burman of the UK (who competed in the 66kg division last year) by a score of 4-1 at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida, earning Taiwan’s first and only gold at World Boxing’s year-ending event.
“I think the key to winning was the team’s great atmosphere, that we shared the dream of winning gold and that we trusted each other,” Chen told the Central News Agency after the gold medal bout.
Photo: CNA
Only boxers with sufficient ranking points could compete in the World Boxing Cup finals and there were four qualifiers in Chen’s weight class.
In the gold medal bout, Chen fought aggressively despite her height disadvantage, while her English opponent relied largely on ineffective counterpunches.
Chen had a 20-18 lead on the scorecards of four of the five judges (and was tied on the other scorecard) heading into the final round, meaning Burman needed a dominant finish to have a chance to win.
Although she came out as the aggressor in round three, Burman failed to land many effective punches, with the two fighters clinching several times, and Chen maintained her edge for gold.
Reflecting on her journey to gold, Chen said she prepared extensively every day, including reviewing videos of Burman’s previous bouts.
She gave special thanks to a scouting team at National Tsing Hua University for its support, which she said “helped me fully grasp my opponents’ strategies.”
Chen’s gold came after Paris Games bronze medalist Wu Shih-yi and Guo Yi-xuan earlier the same day both lost in the finals of the women’s 57kg and 51kg divisions respectively.
All three were coached by Ko Wen-ming, who described the results as “not satisfying, but acceptable.”
“The two silver medals were a bit of a shame — they did have a chance to win,” he said.
The World Boxing Cup Finals in India was the second edition of the tournament held by the nascent organization. It concluded on Thursday after five days featuring more than 80 bouts in 20 men’s and women’s weight classes.
India topped the medal table with nine golds. Uzbekistan finished second with four.
Taiwan, which also had a bronze medal from Huang Hsiao-wen, came after the UK to rank fourth in the medal count among 18 nations.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
RSS