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ATHENS, Aug. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian Alexander Povetkin seized the title for the super heavyweight (over 91kg) category in the boxing tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games without a fighthere Sunday afternoon as his Egyptian opponent was forced to quit the final due to a hand injury.
This was the last gold medal the 11-category Olympic boxing tournament had
to offer. In the previous 10 finals, the powerful Cubans swept away half of the
gold medals on offer.
Povetkin's easy win put the Russians on the second place in theboxing gold
medal tally with three golds. The other two Russian golds came from the
featherweight (57kg) and middleweight (75kg) categories.
Povetkin mounted the boxing arena amidst loud cheers from his supporters in
the Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall of Athens, but only to leave in a few minutes
as he was informed that his Egyptian rival Mohamed Aly had suffered an
unexpected hand fracture and had to quit the match.
Aly, with his right wrist bandaged, appeared at the medal awarding ceremony
and accepted his silver with a smiling face.
The Athens Olympics boxing tournament, which started on Aug.14,also ended
with the ceremony after a total of 272 bouts.
With traditional powerhouses Cuba and Russia bagging 8 golds inall, each
gaining one more boxing gold than four years ago at the Sydney Games, there were
only three golds from the light welterweight (64kg), welterweight (69kg) and
light heavyweight (81kg) categories to be shared by boxers from Thailand,
Kazakhstan and the United States.
However, due to his superb performance of upsetting two of the strongest
boxers in his category, two-time Olympic champion Russian Oleg Saitov and
two-time world champion Cuban Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros, the young Kazakh boxer
Bakhtiyar Artayev was picked as the "Best Boxer of the Olympic Games Athens
2004" by theInternational Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) shortly after he won
the welterweight gold. Enditem |