TEAM GB boxers remarkably won three gold medals, and one bronze at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Thursday (October 18).
Light-heavyweight Karol Itauma, lightweight Caroline Dubois, who became a Youth World champion this year already, and flyweight Hope Price all triumphed.
In Ruslan Kolesnikov Itauma met a Russian who is the reigning European and World champion and who had beaten Karol before. But in their final Itauma produced the performance of his life, timing long punches from range, maintaining a solid defence to edge ahead over the first and second rounds. The third round kept it close but Itauma’s early hard work was decisive as he took a split decision.
Dubois’ moment of triumph came in the final bout of the day and the last medal across all the sports in these Games. To continue the unbeaten run in her career, she unanimously outscored Thailand’s Porntip Buapa.
Hope Price made sure of his gold medal against Thailand’s Sarawut Sukthet, inside a single round. He prevented the Thai from engaging in close. Price suddenly changed the tempo of his assault and forced the referee to issue a standing count. It became clear that Sukthet was unable to continue and the Thai was stopped after only 109 seconds.
Light-welterweight Hassan Azim didn’t let the disappointment of losing his semi-final derail him. He had to box-off for the bronze medal and did so with aplomb. He got off to a blistering start against Morocco’s Mohammed Boulaouja. His reach advantage saw him time one-two combinations, landing them on target. Azim gave his opponent four standing counts and ultimately halted Boulaouja in the second round.
