POSTED: Tuesday September 1st 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cammarelle completes perfect day for Italy

Defeated Michael Hunter of the United States 9-1

Roberto Cammarelle of Italy and Milan, the face of the XV AIBA World Championships, completed an Italian clean sweep on the first day at the Mediolanum Forum in his home town.

The defending Olympic and world super-heavyweight champion overcame a bloody nose to beat Michael Hunter of the United States 9-1, making it three wins out of three for the home squad after victories earlier in the day for Dario Vangeli and Vincenzo Picardi.

With his superb timing and longer arms, Cammarelle kept his young opponent under constant pressure and had little trouble winning the first bout of the evening session. “His timing was too good, I tried my best, but this time it was not enough,” Hunter said, smiling.

“It is a good feeling having got over the first bout,” said Cammarelle. “I am very glad to have completed a perfect day for Italy. However this is just the beginning, a lot of tough opponents await me on the way to the podium, with the Russian and the Cuban boxer being probably the strongest.”

The Cuban boxer, namely Erislandy Savón, steamrollered Andrew Jones of Wales. The latter received a standing count twice after devastating body shots and the referee stopped the contest after the second standing count. “My coach, Pedro Roque, told me to attack Jones’s stomach and ribcage constantly. That proved to be a winning tactic,” Savón said.

Clayton Laurent of the US Virgin Islands wrote history in the next bout. The 19-year-old youngster came back to beat Onoriode Ehwarieme of Nigeria 10-8. “This is probably the greatest day in our country’s amateur boxing history,” he said. “Winning a match at the World Championships is something unbelievable.”

In one the last +91kg bouts of the evening Olympic silver medalist Zhang Zhilei of China comfortably beat Sardor Abdullaev of Uzbekistan.

In the afternoon Vangeli, a 21-year-old light-welterweight from Copertino and a bronze medallist at the 2006 European Championships, beat Carl Hield of the Bahamas 9-3, dominating from the start. “It’s always difficult to break the ice, but after the first successful punches I settled into a rhythm,” said Vangeli.

“Of course I was nervous before the match, I tried to attack aggressively but it is not only aggressiveness that my coaches have taught me but also a variety of punches. I am confident, and my goal is a medal.”

Elsewhere in the 64kg category Frankie Gomez, the Cadet (now Junior) world champion two years ago in Baku, held a boxing clinic for Mikhail Bakarura of Belarus. The 18-4 margin of victory was no exaggeration and Gomez, from Los Angeles, California, said: “I came here to win it all. My goal is the gold medal.”

European Championship silver medallist Gyula Káté‘s bout with Apichet Seansit of Thailand concluded the afternoon session. Hungary’s Káté jumped out to a 3-1 lead, but surprisingly the young Thai turned things around and took the lead at 4-3. But that was the end for Apichet: Káté shifted into top gear, scored 10 unanswered points and won the bout 13-4.

“The first bout is always a problem,” said Káté. “I feel rusty and this match was no exception. However, from the mid-point of the second round I suddenly felt the rhythm. At one point my opponent did not even seem to be willing to box, and that was the moment when I felt I had the match won. This is the first step, but there are many more to take.”

The closest bout of the 51kg morning session was between Suranjoy Mayengbam of India and Tugstsogt Nyambayar of Mongolia. The Indian led 5-2 but Nyambayar caught up with him and the final score was 10-10. The Mongolian came out the winner on individual points. “I was a little lucky,” Nymbayar conceded.

Russia’s Misha Aloyan, a World Cup-winner last December in addition to his European Junior title, beat Yaya Runanga of Burundi 25-2. The 21-year-old from Kemerovskaya is one of the favourites for the gold medal.

In the final bout of the session Picardi, the Olympic bronze medallist, coasted to the second round, easily outpointing young Nihat Seyidov of Azerbajan. The 17-year-old from Baki scored the first point but then came 13 unanswered points for the local favourite, who won 17-2.

“My opponent scored the first point, it was a wake-up call for me, but after that I did not have much problem,” said Picardi. “I was not nervous, after such a strong preparation my self-confidence is sky high. The first step is always very important.”

The highly anticipated re-introduction of three rounds of three minutes in place of four rounds of two for the first time since the 1996 Olympic Games, plus the revolutionary transparent scoring system (not only the combined score, but also the five judges’ individual scores are visible to the public via screens for the very first time) were both features of the first day.

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Keywords · Roberto Cammarelle · Michael Hunter · AIBA · Boxing · XV AIBA World Championships

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Name: Richard Baker
Organization: AIBA - International Boxing Association
Email:
Phone: +41213212777
URL: http://www.aiba.org/

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