Britain's boxers are hoping to land a collective haymaker at Beijing 2008 to back up their claim that, by the time the 2012 London Games roll around, the country could displace powerhouse Cuba as the new king of the ring.
Britain's Amir Khan, 17, rests between rounds against Mario Cesar Kindelan Mesa of Cuba during their lightweight boxing match in Athens, 2004. Khan took silver, Britain's sole boxing medal at the Games. [Agencies] |
Britain could be "the new Cuba of boxing" in four years' time, English Amateur Boxing Association (EABA) president Richard Caborn told The Guardian last month.
Seven Brits have already qualified for the Aug 8-24 Beijing Games, including new world champion Frankie Gavin (lightweight). Four more could do so at the final European qualifier in Athens, which starts on Monday.
"We hope we'll add another two, maybe three," Roger Eady, EABA performance manager, told China Daily.
Historically, Cuba, the United States and Russia rank as the best Olympic pugilists. The Americans have 48 golds, Cuba 32, while Russia and the Soviet Union combined have 20. Britain is fifth on the all-time list with 13, just behind European neighbor Italy.
The Americans have seen decreasing returns over the last three Olympics but Andre Ward's light heavyweight gold in Athens (one of two boxing medals) was a turn up for the books. Flyweight Rau'shee Warren and welterweight Demetrius Andrade could potentially raise the gold medal count this summer as the leaders of their respective classes, and the US should add to its eight Olympic berths at the final qualifier in Guatemala from April 24-30.
Cuba, which got eight boxing medals in Athens, and Russia (6) have taken some hits ahead of the Beijing Games but either could come out on top in terms of their medal battle. Cuba has been weakened by a wave of defections, while Russia's strength has been challenged by several high-profile defeats, including world No 1 Alexey Tischenko's loss to Briton Gavin at the World Championships in Chicago last fall.
Yet Russia is one of only four countries, so far, to qualify 10 boxers for the Games -- along with China, Kazakhstan and Morocco and it has boxers sitting at the top of four of 11 Olympic weight classes, according to ABA Boxing. In contrast, Cuba has four boxers ranked No. 3, including Emilio Correa (middleweight), but no one higher among its nine Beijing-bound boxers.
While China is not expected to pick up more than one or two medals, despite its recent success, Kazakhstan could do some major damage with Bakhtiar Artayev (middleweight) and Serik Sapiyev (light welterweight) ranked the fourth and fifth best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
Sapiyev could provide one of the highlights of the tournament if he fights reformed playboy and defending gold medalist Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand, one of three Thai boxers to medal in Athens.
Out of Africa, Morocco and Egypt look like the most dangerous prospects.
Egypt embarked on building a new legacy at Athens 2004 with three boxing medals, its first at the Olympics, but the continent has not seen a gold medal in the sport since Algeria's Hoeina Soltani took the lightweight title at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Algeria (8 berths), Ghana (6) and Kenya (5) will also be in the medal hunt as rank outsiders.
Smaller countries may also steal headlines, with Mongolia in particular hoping that world No 3 bantamweight Enkhbat Badar-Uugan can snap its 16-year medal drought.
