(NOV 20)
(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) - Two
American boxers familiar with international success each added
to their winning streaks on Thursday at the 2014 Elite Women’s
World Championships in Jeju, South Korea. 2012 Olympic gold
medalist Claressa
Shields (Flint,
Mich.) and reigning world champion Tiara
Brown (Fort
Myers, Fla.) enjoyed unanimous decision victories today to move
on to Friday’s quarterfinal competition. Light flyweight Alex
Love (Fort
Carson, Colo.) and light welterweight Destiny
Chearino (Warwick,
R.I.) dropped close decisions in their preliminary contests on
Thursday.
After an 11-second bout on
Wednesday, Shields faced off in a full four rounds of
competition in her middleweight bout with Poland’s Lidia
Fudura on
Thursday. The Olympic champion won a wide decision in the
contest to advance to what she had hoped would be a rematch with
the lone conqueror of her career – Savanah Marshall of England.
Marshall defeated Shields in the 2012 World Championships,
giving the teenager her only loss. Yet Shields won’t be able to
avenge the defeat as she’d hoped due to Marshall falling to
Russia’s Iavoslava
Iakushina in
their preliminary contest on Thursday. Shields will face off
with Iakushina on Friday at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time
(6:30 a.m. ET) for a spot in the medal round.
Brown was one of the first U.S.
boxers to compete in Jeju, boxing in her first round contest on
Monday and she was finally back in action in the featherweight
division on Thursday. Once again, Brown pulled out a hotly
contested victory, taking a 3-0 decision over Bulgaria’s Sveltana
Staneva to
join Shields in Friday’s quarterfinals. She will take on Chinese
Taipei’s Wen
Ling Chen at
approximately 7:45 p.m. local time (5:45 a.m. ET) on Friday.
Love enjoyed a win in her first
bout of the World Championships on Tuesday but she couldn’t
duplicate the result in her second bout on Thursday. She dropped
a 2-1 decision to Indonesia’s Aldriani
Suguro in
their light flyweight contest, eliminating her from the
tournament.
Chearino spent the first three
days of competition watching her teammates battle international
foes in Jeju and she finally got her opportunity to step in to
the ring on Thursday. She took on Romania’s Simona
Sitar in
light welterweight competition and despite her best efforts,
fell by a 2-0 score.
All six remaining United States
competitors will box in Friday’s quarterfinal competition at the
Halla Gymnasium. In addition to Shields and Brown, flyweight Marlen
Esparza (Houston,
Texas), welterweight Danyelle
Wolf (San
Diego, Calif.) and light heavyweight Heidi
Henriksen (St.
Louis Park, Minn.) will return to action while heavyweight Krystal
Dixon (New
Rochelle, N.Y.) makes her tournament debut.
Wolf will start off the day in a
bout with Azerbaijan’s Elena
Vystropova at
approximately 3:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) with Henriksen
battling Ukraine’s Anastasia
Chernokolenko at
about 4:15 p.m. local time (2:15 a.m. ET).
Esparza will compete in the first
bout of the evening session, taking on Turkey’s Elif
Nur Coska at
7 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) and Dixon will close out the day
in a match-up with a Turkish foe as well, battling Emine
Bozduman at
approximately 9 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET).
Through five days of boxing, the
United States sits in third place in the team standings behind
Russia and China with six boxers in medal contention.
All of the tournament action is
being live streamed at
www.aiba.org.
U.S.
Results
106 lbs/48 kg: Aldriani Suguro,
INA, dec. Alex
Love, Fort Carson, Colo./USA,
2-1
125 lbs/57 kg: Tiara
Brown, Fort Myers, Fla./USA dec.
Svetlana Staneva, BUL, 3-0
141 lbs/64 kg: Simona Sitar, ROU, dec. Destiny
Chearino, Warwick, R.I./USA, 2-0
165 lbs/75 kg: Claressa
Shields, Flint, Mich./USA dec.
Lidia Fidura, POL, 3-0
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