Yafai heads England gold charge
Three English boxers will bid for gold at the European Amateur Championships in Moscow on Saturday after semi-final wins for Khalid Yafai, Iain Weaver and Tom Stalker on Friday.
The wins confirmed England will have three continental finalists for the first time since 1947. They will be joined in the finals by Irish pair Paddy Barnes and Darren O'Neill, who also won their last four bouts. Yafai celebrated his 21st birthday in style with a punch-perfect 5-0 win over Germany's Ronny Beblik in their 51kg clash. The win provided delicious revenge for Yafai, who was controversially beaten by Beblik in last year's World Championship.
Yafai said: "I wanted that revenge so badly and there was no way I was going to get beaten on my birthday. I just wanted to prove everyone wrong and make sure I got into the final."
Yafai's final opponent, Russian Misha Aloyan, beat him in the European junior final three years ago. Yafai added: "We're the best two at the weight and it will be a good fight. But I've matured and I'm very confident of beating him."
Bournemouth featherweight Weaver continued his remarkable rise through the ranks by pulling away in the final round to score an impressive 10-3 win over Irish opponent Tyrone McCullagh.
Weaver has excelled after being fast-tracked into coach Robert McCracken's podium squad and he said: "Nobody really expected a lot of me out here but I always really believed I was one of the best.
"I don't really notice the pressure, I just get on with the job. There's a great team spirit and it says a lot about how far we are all progressing that we get three in the finals of the toughest tournament of all of them.
"If you'd told me two years ago that I'd be boxing in a European final this soon maybe I wouldn't have believed you. But now I've got here I feel like I belong and I'm confident of bringing home the gold."
Stalker clawed his way out of a final-round deficit to defeat Germany's Eugen Burhard 5-2. It was another composed performance by the Liverpool lightweight who knocked out world champion Domenico Valentino in an earlier round.
But there was heartbreak in the 54kg category as both Yafai's younger brother, 18-year-old Gamal, and Welshman Andrew Selby missed out and had to settle for bronze medals. Gamal put up a superb display against Russia's world silver medallist Eduard Abzalimov but dropped a 2-1 lead in the final round to lose 3-2. Selby suffered a lopsided-looking 5-0 verdict to Ukraine's Georgi Chigaev.
Date published :
11 Jun 2010 - 15:38:44
