BANGKOK, 13 July 2003 — France accused boxing authorities of home ring favoritism yesterday after reigning world champion Jerome Thomas lost his flyweight crown and his cool to Thailand hero Somjit Jongjohor in an ill-tempered World Amateur Championships final.
The row threatened to overshadow a gold medal display by Frenchman Willy Blain in the light-welterweight division and Thailand’s first ever world title.
The French camp feared before yesterday’s match up between Thomas and 2002 Asian Games gold medalist Somjit that the Thais would be gifted a gold medal as a thank you for organizing the championships.
“It is the (Thai) organizers that won the gold medal for the country, not the boxer. It happens (in boxing) that the hosts receive a gold,” said a disgruntled French team leader Dominique Nato.
“If these two boxers took on each other 10 times, Jerome (Thomas) would win nine of them. He lost concentration after being badly outpointed in the early rounds and became frustrated.
“The coaches have told him to forget about the loss and concentrate on winning a gold medal at next year’s Olympics.”
Thomas, a neat boxer who rarely dropped his guard during the championships, lost all discipline after conceding the first two rounds 17-7.
He waved his arms in the air, an accusation that the Thai was showboating rather than boxing, and after the final bell ironically applauded each of the five judges individually.
Somjit, backed by a vociferous crowd, paraded a picture of the revered Thai royal couple in the ring after the victory in a repeat of the scenes after boxer Somluck Kamsing won the country’s first Olympic medal at the 1996 Athens Games.
The lanky Thai stands to gain incentive bonuses in excess of two million baht (about US$47,500) from Thai sports authorities.
In an earlier final, Blain easily outpointed Alexandre Martin of Russia 32-13 to take the gold after lifting a bronze in 2001 and silver in 1999.
China’s Zou Shiming, who made history by reaching the light flyweight final in his country’s world championships debut, was pipped to the gold by Serguei Kazakov of Russia.
Zou came out strongly but found the aggressive style of Kazakov difficult to defend against and was forced on to the back foot. The bout was tied 7-7 after the second round but smart work from the Russian in the closing rounds saw him triumph 23-19.
The pencil-slim Chinese, who took up boxing when he was 16 after sports authorities spotted his potential, was happy with his silver medal.
Agasi Mamedov, who won a silver medal for his adopted country Turkey at the last world championships in 2001, went one better for his native Azerbaijan in the bantamweight final.
Mamedov, lured back to his home country with promises of a house and living expenses, defeated Russia’s Gennadi Kovalev 17-8. Earlier in the championships, Mamedov gained sweet revenge by beating Cuba’s Guillermo Rigondeaux, his conqueror in the 2001 final.
Cuban defending champions Lorenzo Aragon (welterweight), Mario Kindelan (lightweight) and Odlanier Fonte Solis (heavyweight) retained their titles with wins over Uzbekistan’s Husanov Sherzod, Pichai Sayotha of Thailand and Russia’s Alexandre Alexseev respectively.
Russia’s Evgueni Makarenko also successfully retained his light-heavyweight crown by beating Magomed Aripgadzhiev of Belarus 29-11.
Kazakhstan had a 100 percent record in the finals with both their fighters, Galib Jafarov (featherweight) and Gennadiy Golovkin (middleweight), lifting gold medals.
