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02/11/2007

Day Ten at the XIV AIBA World Championships

64kg Bradley Saunders (ENG) beat Alexis Vastine (FRA) 30:13

Saunders becomes only the 5th Brit and 4th Englishman to ever win a medal in AIBA World Championship Boxing.

Thursday afternoon, 1st November, "Buzzing" Brad Saunders, 20 yr old, South Durham ABC, 64 kg light welterweight fought his way to a semi final place at the XIV AIBA World Championships, being staged at, The Pavilion of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Confident Saunders out hustled tall, fellow Olympic qualifier, 20 yr old Frenchman, Alexis Vastine 30:13 and now is assured of at least a bronze medal in his first ever World Championship tournament. Both boxers having already qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with three previous victories each, the Durham Dynamo wanted a medal and was too strong, too quick and too determined for the stylish Frenchman to handle.

From round 1, Brad, the father of a 14 month old baby boy, would not let Vastine settle and whilst he only held a 1 point lead at the end of the 1st [5:4], Waterloo was not going to be reversed. In fact Saunders was having more trouble with his headguard than he was with Vastine. Brad kept suffering the annoyance of his headguard creeping over his eyes and impairing his vision. Perpetual touching and pushing up of the headguard, by Saunders, as he continued to out muscle his French foe, lead to two stoppages of action whilst GB Head Coach, Terry Edwards displayed his skills as a dresser attempting rearrange our hero's head wear. The second of these stoppages lead to Brad getting a standing 8 count, as the ref had not picked up the boxer's signal that he needed attention paid to his headguard.

A 13:10 lead at the end of the 2nd round, became 22:12 by the end of the 3rd round. Saunders had scored throughout with hard, fast two shot flurries which allowed Bradley the luxury of strolling around the ring in the 4th and final round, picking the tired, but game Frenchman off as Vastine attempted to close both the points and canvas gap between himself and Bradley, all to no avail. 30:13, to our Durham hero, was a fair reflection of what had happened over the tough 4 rounds. Tomorrow afternoon, 2nd November, Saunders boxes Russia's, Gennady Kovalev, who went through via a walkover, for a place in Saturday's finals.

Brad Saunders "Just sinking in - bronze at the Worlds, I would like gold"

Terry Edwards, GB Head Coach, "Secret of the team's success, preparation, preparation, preparation, it would be good to double our total previous best medal haul from the Worlds"

Dominique Nato, French Head Coach "He was too strong"

54kg Joe Murray (ENG) beat Yu Gu (CHN) 14:11

Murray chased elusive Chinese southpaw Yu Gu around the ring for six minutes, whilst these first three rounds must have been frustrating for the young Mancunian he stuck to his task with determination and resolution. Murray was 1:3 down at the end of the first, 4:7 down at the end of the second, but by the end of the third his pursuit of a very elusive Chinese boxer paid dividends as Murray had managed to level the score 10:10.

At the start of round four Joe Murray began to catch his opponent with scoring punches to take a narrow lead. Now the game changed. Gu realised that he was not going to win on the retreat so rolls reversed and Gu chased Joe around the ring. Murray picked his punches with accuracy and maintained concentration and discipline as Gu attempted to level the scores. A quality long right caught Gu and that virtually decided the contest as the punch was good enough to drain most of the Chinese boxer's energy. Murray ran out a 14:11 winner. A triumph of belief, determination and concentration over a particularly difficult opponent.

Joe Murray is now, at very minimum, a world championship bronze medallist. On Friday evening, 2nd November, Joe faces rough, tough Mongolian Enkhbat Badar-Uugan for a place in Saturday's final.

Joe Murray "Brilliant. Thought I'd beat him after the first as I knew he would tire after the first two rounds from when I lost to him recently in China. Bronze is good. Gold is better."

Terry Edwards "Tremendous, one of the least experienced of our team, he's come of age at these championships."

60kg Frankie Gavin (ENG) beat Onur Sipal (TUR) 16:7

Fun time Frankie knew he had a fearsome hard man in front of him in Turkey's Onur Sipal. Frank instead of running, stood right in front of his opponent, and forced Sipal to retreat, picking the Turk off every time Sipal attempted to attack the Yardley, Birmingham man.

Although the first round scored 2:2 Frank was the general in charge of the action. Round 2 saw Sipal fly at Gavin. Frank used his slippery skill to evade the onrushing strong man, carefully placing scoring punches at an increasingly frustrated Turk. This gave young Gavin a 9:4 lead at the end of the second round.

Once the Hall Green ABC man creates a bit of daylight he becomes a very difficult proposition to beat. Frank took his lead to 13:6 by the end of the third. Sipal knew he was beaten, but was determined to try and land something solid and telling on the elusive brummie. No chance! Frank picked him to pieces and wound up a decisive 16:7 winner. Sipal was so frustrated and so wound up that he refused to shake Frank's hand at the end of the contest, much to the amusement of the crowd, a situation Frankie milked to the maximum, being loudly applauded by a packed UIC Pavillion crowd.

Frankie faces top cat, longstanding world no.1, Russian Alexey Tishchenko on Friday evening.

Frankie Gavin "Not as strong as I thought he would be. Tactics worked out with Terry were perfect. Big thanks to UK Sport Lottery funding and preparation with Terry and Tim Witherspoon in Philadelphia. Funding and preparation is making the difference. Now to box the Russian. Besides thanking the coaches here Dave (Pocknell) and Nigel (Davies) I owe a big thank you to my club coaches Tom Chaney and Steve McHale."

Terry Edwards "Fabulous. Frank has a great boxing brain."

81kg Tony Jeffries (ENG) lost to Yerkebuian Shynaliyev (KAZ) 9:20

Power punching, Sunderland ABC light heavyweight Tony "Jaffa" Jeffries seemed to be using low power ammunition this evening. He was in the ring but his mind was probably already in Beijing. Whilst he had an awkward enough opponent in Kazakhstan's Yerkebuian Shynaliyev, a short southpaw who has a degree in being a nuisance, an average performance from Jeffries would have been enough to have bought him at least a bronze medal.

In a non-event contest Tony never got to grips with his opponent, never looked like getting to grips with his opponent, and the Kazak kept the lid on proceedings the few times Jeffries attempted to step up the pace. Jeffries has the power and ability to be effective against this sort of opponent but never got off the starting blocks.

4:6 down in the first round became 6:11 in the second, 8:17 in the third and 9:20 in the last.

It has been a good week for Tony Jeffries. It's just a pity that Tony allowed his form to dip by about 50% following his successful Olympic qualification.

Tony Jeffries "Disappointed. He is a tricky southpaw. I just didn't get going."

Terry Edwards, GB Head Coach "Jeffries is better than that. Mentally he was not here tonight. The world title was his to win. Disappointing."

+91kg David Price (ENG) - Walk Over - Roberto Cammarelle (ITA)

Unfortunately David Price sustained a serious injury to his left hand in last night's contest and was unable to make a fist or close a glove and thus, despite the medics best efforts, could not compete this evening thus giving Olympic Bronze medallist southpaw Roberto Cammarelle (ITA) a walkover and automatic qualification for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Price's time will come as there are still four superheavyweight spots available to European boxers and two qualification tournaments at which to get them (Italy, Pescara, 24th February and Greece, Athens, 7th April).

David Price "Gutted"

Terry Edwards, GB Head Coach "David has boxed particularly well in these world championships and it is therefore a big disappointment that he was unable to box for automatic Olympic qualification here in Chicago, a right he had fought for. I am confident, providing he keeps up his current form, that David will qualify for Beijing."

Thursday 1st November

54kg Joe Murray (ENG) bt Yu Gu (CHN) 14:11

60kg Frankie Gavin (ENG) bt Onur Sipal (TUR) 16:7

64kg Bradley Saunders (ENG) bt Alexis Vastine (FRA) 30:13

81kg Tony Jeffries (ENG) lost to Yerkebuian Shynaliyev (KAZ) 9:20

+91kg David Price (ENG) lost to Roberto Cammarelle (ITA) WO (Suspected broken left hand)

Friday 2nd Novermeber

54kg Joe Murray (ENG) v Enkhbat Badar-Uugan (MGL)

60kg Frankie Gavin (ENG) v Alexey Tishchenko (RUS)

64kg Bradley Saunders (ENG) v Gennady Kovalev (RUS)

Live scoring is available on www.aiba.org

Full bout reports for all of the boxers will be available on the ABAE website on a daily basis.