Lomachenko wins featherweight gold on first-round stoppage

Lomachenko wins featherweight gold on first-round stoppage
Associated Press
Updated: August 23, 2008, 12:17 PM ET

BEIJING -- Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine won the featherweight boxing gold medal, capping a spectacular run through the Beijing Olympics with a first-round stoppage of France's Khedafi Djelkhir.

Lomachenko beat his five opponents by an astonishing 58-13 on the way to his first gold medal, battering every foe with quick hands and relentless aggression.

The referee mercifully stopped his title bout Saturday against the overmatched Djelkhir with nine seconds left in the opening round. Djelkhir already had endured three standing-eight counts after getting stunned by repeated head blows.

Flyweight

Somjit Jongjohor of Thailand won the first boxing gold medal of the Olympics, beating Cuba's Andris Laffita 8-2 to claim the flyweight title.

Somjit is a 33-year-old former world champion fighting in his last Olympics. He used his experience for a surprisingly easy win Saturday over Laffita, the 30-year-old in his first Games for the deep Cuban team.

Four years ago in Athens, Somjit lost an early-round bout to Cuba's Yuriorkis Gamboa, who went on to win gold before defecting.

Light Welterweight

Felix Diaz won the first gold medal in Olympic boxing for the Dominican Republic with a 12-4 battering of defending champion Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand.

In a brawling four rounds, Diaz continuously beat the Thai to the punch, scoring heavily with rights to the head and a series of body blows. Diaz pulled away in the third round and Boonjumnong never rallied.

The bronze medals went to Roniel Iglesias of Cuba, and Alexis Vastine of France.

Middleweight

James Degale of Britain won the middleweight boxing gold medal, upsetting Cuba's Emilio Correa 16-14 in a sloppy bout filled with wrestling.

Both Degale and Correa were assessed two-point penalties while spending much of the bout Saturday in each other's arms. Degale clinged to an early lead by landing just enough punches to stay ahead of Correa, who failed to emulate his father's gold-medal performance for Cuba in 1972.

Degale, 22, has no real international success, but he made a surprise run to the title fight while the top middleweight contenders were eliminated by others.

Heavyweight

Rakhim Chakhkiev of Russia won the heavyweight boxing gold medal, avenging a loss to Italy's Clemente Russo at last year's world championships with a 4-2 victory.

Chakhkiev is the only Russian to win gold so far from a touted 11-man boxing team that had an awful Olympics. He got the decisive points late in his gritty bout Saturday with Russo, the world champion after beating Chakhkiev last fall.

Chakhkiev is the first non-Cuban to win the Olympic heavyweight title since 1988 and just the third non-Cuban to win it since George Foreman's victory in 1968. Cuba's heavyweight, Osmai Acosta, lost to Chakhkiev in the semifinals.




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