BANGKOK, 8 July 2003 — The United States were left licking their wounds yesterday after all seven of their boxers in early action at the World Amateur Championships were beaten in the first round.
A former powerhouse in the amateur fight game, the US has slumped embarrassingly in recent major events. They failed to win a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney for the first time since 1948, and did not lift a title at the 2001 World Amateur Championships.
Four American fighters lost on the opening day and three more, flyweight Ronald Siler, featherweight Jose Perez and super heavyweight George Garcia, were dumped from the event yesterday.
They went down to Bulgarian Alexandar Alexandrov, Oleg Yefymovych of Ukraine and Lithuania’s Jaroslavas Jaksto respectively.
US head coach Frank Gentile was at a loss to explain the early wipe-out but expressed his surprise at the judging in at least one of the bouts. The disheartened US squad have three boxers still to fight but Gentile was not confident about their chances.
In contrast to the Americans tale of woe, the power-packed Cuban camp have yet to experience a loss. Cuba, the dominant force at the last championships winning seven of the 12 golds on offer, recorded three victories on day one and three more yesterday.
