(AUG 15)  The Olympic tournament in Brazil has created a few surprises so far, especially in the men's events but on Friday it was the turn of the women to enter the fray though here too there were few surprises on the opening day as we hear from the AIBA's team in the Brazilian capital.

"The first women’s bouts of the Rio 2016 Boxing Tournament got underway on Friday in Riocentro Pavilion 6, with four bouts at Flyweight (51kg) and Lightweight (60kg).

The strength of the Women’s Flyweight competition was highlighted from the very first bout, as Ukraine’s Tetyana Kob defeated former World Champion Stanimra Petrova, taking advantage of rare gaps in the Bulgarian’s defences to establish an early lead that she refused to give up.

Kob will now face London 2012 gold medalist Nicola Adams in Tuesday’s first Quarter-Final, while Canada’s Mandy Bujold also progressed, defeating Yodgoroy Mirzaeva. A big left from Bujold had the Uzbek on the canvas in the second round, and from that point there looked to be only one outcome, the Canadian winning all four rounds to set up a Quarter-Final match with China’s London 2012 runner-up Ren Cancan.

The Women’s Lightweight (60kg) competition got underway with Finland’s experienced Mira Potkonen edging a close encounter with Brazil’s London 2012 bronze medalist Adriana Araujo, before China’s 2014 Asian Games champion Yin Junhua defeated Morocco’s Hasnaa Lachgar to join Potkonen in the last eight.As her 'prize' Potkonen has now the opportunity Monday of tackling the current world no.1 and reigning Olympic champion Katie Taylor from Ireland.

The women boxers got the evening session under way, with Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia defeating the Central African Republic’s invitational boxer Judith Mbougnade by technical knockout after a heavy blow in the third round caused the referee to end the bout.


France’s Sarah Ourahmoune was several inches shorter than her opponent Zohra Ez Zahraoui, but evaded the Moroccan’s longer reach for the majority of the bout while landing some heavy blows to earn a comprehensive victory and set up a Quarter-Final tie with Kazakhstan second-seed Zhaina Shekerbekova.

The second of the day’s tripartite invitational boxers was the Federated States of Micronesia’s Jennifer Chieng. Facing Mikaela Mayer of the USA in a tough Olympic debut, Chieng was far from overawed posing Mayer plenty of problems early, but the American’s physical superiority showed as the contest went on, earning a last eight showdown against Russia’s former World Champion Anastasiia Beliakova.

The Australian fans gave Shelley Watts a rousing reception as she went into the ring against Italy’s former Youth World Champion Irma Testa. The tough Italian emerged victorious from a draining encounter as Watts threw everything at her in the final minutes, and Testa now has until Monday to restore her energies for a tricky Quarter-Final against French World Champion Estelle Mossely.

On Monday we will see how Katie Taylor recovers from her two 'shock' defeats earlier this Summer when she takes on the flying Finn,Mira Potkoen. No battle between these two has ever been less than 'fierce' and Monday promises to be no exception - a fight to the finish with Taylor having never been beaten by Potkonen in their many fights over the years.

Little has been seen of the Bray woman in Rio - she travelled out much later than the men's squad preferring to spar at the National Stadium with male champions like Eric Donovan, who reckons Taylor is back to something near her very best and he expects no shock come Monday.

Others like Mosselly, Yin Junhua and of course Yana Alekseevna do expect to strike Gold in Rio and dethrone Taylor who has reigned supreme these past 10 years or so and in January became world no.1 for a remarkable 10th year in a row.

Tuesday sees both Claressa Shields and Nicola Adams in action and will will bring you news of their bouts in the days ahead.




All the results from Rio, day by day, male and female are here - courtesy Strefa Poland boxing and Tibor Kincses.

http://amateur-boxing.strefa.pl/Championships/OlympicGames2016.html