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Three medals already within the bag, with as many as 5 extra to return – Workforce GB’s boxing squad are heading in the direction of an Olympic Video games that’s rather more British swimming than British rowing.
Whereas the swimmers, on for a report medal haul, have been the Tokyo 2020 success story to this point, the rowing unit have descended into civil warfare over a disastrous, fourth-place riddled regatta.
However come the top of the Video games, even Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott and co could discover themselves outshone by Britain’s greatest newbie pugilists, with a boxing medal haul that’s set to inflate beginning this weekend.
With each semi-final losers selecting up bronze, a win within the quarter-finals ensures you a spot on the Olympic podium, which is precisely what Karriss Artingstall (girls’s featherweight), Pat McCormack (males’s welterweight) and Ben Whittaker (males’s gentle heavyweight) have already carried out.
2019 World Championship medallists McCormack and Whittaker had been each anticipated to be proper within the podium hunt pre-tournament and are aiming greater than the bronze they’ve already assured.
“I’ve pushed by means of that first door now,” mentioned Whittaker, who takes on Imam Khataev within the semi-finals within the early hours of Sunday morning UK time. “What I have to do now’s begin altering that color.
“Bronze is a beautiful color however everybody desires that gold.”
McCormack was much more forthright along with his ambition as he prepares to face Eire’s Aidan Walsh round 45 minutes earlier than Whittaker fights on Sunday.
Workforce GB fights this weekend
All instances BST
- Patrick Chinyemba (ZAM) vs Galal Yafai (GBR), Saturday 31 July, 9.15am
- Andy Cruz (CUB) vs Luke McCormack (GBR), Saturday 31 July, 10:03am
- Karriss Artingstall (GBR) vs Sena Irie (JAP), Saturday 31 July, 11:24am
- Pat McCormack (GBR) vs Aidan Walsh (IRE), Sunday 1 August, 4:03am
- Imam Khataev (ROC) vs Ben Whittaker (GBR), Sunday 1 August, 4:51am
- Frazer Clarke (GBR) vs Mourad Aliev (FRA), Sunday 1 August, 5:24am
“It’s one thing I’ve all the time dreamed of, to get a medal on the Olympics,” he mentioned. “However now’s the time to vary the color.
“Gold is the dream after which I’ve accomplished newbie boxing. I’m getting higher in every struggle, I’m warming into the match and hopefully I simply maintain getting higher.”
Artingstall is the primary Brit with an opportunity to maneuver into the ultimate when she takes on dwelling favorite Sena Irie at 11.24am BST right now, whereas McCormack’s twin brother Luke faces a tricky struggle towards Cuban Andy Cruz within the final 16 of the lads’s light-weight.
Twenty-year-old Londoner Caroline Dubois is a boxing famous person in ready and her spectacular win over USA’s Rashida Ellis on Friday means she’s only one victory away from a assured girls’s light-weight medal.
“I’m coming right here for a gold medal,” declared Dubois, who additionally mentioned she feels ‘disrespected’ by different boxers in her division. “I don’t need something apart from that medal, I need it badly and greater than something I’ve ever needed in my total life.”
Welsh star Lauren Value can also be one win away from the rostrum within the girls’s middleweight class – with Panamanian Atheyna Bylon her quarter-final foe – whereas tremendous heavyweight and workforce captain Frazer Clarke, who has been vocally supporting his teammates within the area all Olympics, solely must beat France’s Mourad Aliev on Monday to safe his medal.
And flyweight Galal Yafai is gearing up for a final 16 conflict on Saturday to spherical out Workforce GB’s eight boxers nonetheless going robust.
In the event that they proceed on their present path, it may very well be the gr-eightest of Olympics.
Nobody does extra to assist our Olympic and Paralympic athletes than Nationwide Lottery gamers, who elevate round £36 million every week for good causes together with elite and grassroots sport. Uncover extra about how enjoying The Nationwide Lottery helps Workforce GB’s athletes by visiting www.national-lottery.co.uk/tokyo2020 and become involved by utilizing the hashtags: #TNLAthletes #MakeAmazingHappen
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