Four Thai fighters claim Asian youth honours
Thai quartet qualify for this year’s Argentina Games after their success at Asian championships
>> Four Thai boxers won gold medals at the ASBC Asian Youth Confederation Boxing Championships 2018 at Indoor Stadium, Hua Mark yesterday and qualified for this year’s Youth Olympics.
The quartet are Sarawut Sukthet (men’s 52kg), Atichai Phoemsap (men’s 60kg), Weerapon Jongjoho (men’s 75kg) and Porntip Buapa (women’s 60kg).
In the final, Sarawut beat Samandar Kholmurodov of Uzbekistan 4-1.
“I am happy to win and proud to represent Thailand at the Youth Olympics,” Sarawut said.
Atichai had a tough assignment against India’s Ankit Khatana before winning 3-2.
“This win is for all Thais,” Atichai said.
Weerapon, nephew of 2008 Olympic champion Somjit, defeated Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan 4-1.
“I still have time to prepare for the Youth Olympics in October [in Argentina],” Weerapon said.
“I want to follow in the footsteps of my uncle [Somjit] by winning an Olympic gold medal.”
Porntip made a light work of South Korea’s Jo Mi-Hyun, winning the title fight 5-0.
“I have to improve my defence. If I can do it, I am confident that I will win an Olympic gold medal,” Porntip said.
Pichai Chunhavajira, president of the Thailand Boxing Association, said the fighters had surpassed their pretournament target of winning three Olympic berths.
“I am happy with them. We groomed them for three years and we are now successful,” he said.
“I believe that they will do well at the Youth Olympics.”
Meanwhile, boxing’s underfire rulers have handed over a crucial report on internal reforms to the International Olympic Committee which is threatening to axe the sport from the 2020 Tokyo Games.
In February, the IOC opened an investigation into the sport’s controversial governing body and said concerns remained over possible matchfixing at Rio 2016.
The IOC’s executive board also froze contacts with and financial payments to the International Amateur Boxing Association (Aiba).
Meeting in Pyeongchang at the February Winter Olympics, the IOC’s executive board had said it was “not satisfied” with an earlier report by Aiba about its governance, refereeing and anti-doping issues, and demanded this further report by April 30.
On Wednesday, Aiba director Pat Fiacco told AFP: “The report was delivered on time today.
“The new Aiba is dedicated to transparency and will make the report public as soon as the IOC consents.”
An IOC statement warned the Aiba on Feb 4: “The IOC reserves the right to review the inclusion of boxing on the programme of the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.”
And IOC president Thomas Bach declared at the time: “We are extremely worried about the governance of Aiba,” which has as its interim president Gafur Rakhimov, a controversial Uzbekistan businessman.