Hosts Turkey claimed two Rio 2016 berths on the final day of action at the International Boxing Association (AIBA) European Olympic Qualification Event in Samsun as Great Britain added three more gold medals to their tally.
Home favourite Batuhan Gozgec defeated Armenia’s Hovhannes Bachkov in the men’s light welterweight box-off to secure a place at this year’s Olympic Games.
Super heavyweight Ali Eren Demirezen was the other Turk to book his ticket to Rio de Janeiro thanks to a walkover victory against Hungarian Istvan Bernath.
Irish lightweight David Joyce and Azerbaijani heavyweight Abdulkadir Abdullayev will also be competing in Brazil after seeing off Turkey’s Volkan Gokcek and Ukraine’s Gevorg Manukian in their respective box-offs.
Three British fighters added gold medals to Rio 2016 qualification today, led by Olympic champion Nicola Adams in the women’s flyweight division.
Adams defeated Bulgaria’s Stanimira Petrova in their final after which men’s heavyweight Lawrence Okolie was granted a walkover victory against France’s Paul Omba Biongolo.
Super heavyweight Joe Joyce completed the hat-trick in the evening session with a points win over Azerbaijan’s Mahammadrasul Majidov.
Azerbaijan won two gold medals courtesy of victories for women’s lightweight Yana Alekseevna over Italy’s Irma Testa and men’s light welterweight Lorenzo Sotomayor against Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauskas.
Russia’s Iaroslava Iakushina beat Sweden’s Anna Laurell Nash to the top of the women’s middleweight podium, while France’s Sofiane Oumiha got the better of Britain’s Joe Cordina in the men’s lightweight final.
Ukrainian flyweight Tetyana Kob was one of the three women’s box-off winners along with Irish lightweight Katie Taylor and German middleweight Sarah Scheurich.
Kob overcame Norway’s Marielle Hansen before Olympic champion Taylor saw off Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva and Scheurich downed Hungary’s Petra Szatmari.
Only bronze medals were at stake in the women’s box-offs with the two finalists in each class winning a Rio 2016 quota.
- By Daniel Etchells
- Republished with permission insidethegames.biz