Light flyweight Zou Shiming achieved a historic breakthrough for Chinese boxing as he beat his Armenian opponent on points 20-12 here Tuesday to secure the first ever Olympic boxing medal for his country at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
With rapid attacks and extremely flexible paces, the 23-year- old Zou outclassed Aleksan Nalbandyan of Armenia in the four-round quarterfinal match to book a berth in the semifinals of the 48kg category.
As the losers of semifinals share bronze medal at Olympic boxing tournament, Zou has secured at least one bronze medal for China, the best ever result for Chinese boxers at the Olympic Games.
"I can't say anything to you now as I am just watching the match of my opponent in the semifinals," said Zou when Xinhua reached him via mobile phone.
In the semifinals scheduled for Aug. 27, Zou will take on Cuban boxer Varela Yan Bhartelemy, who beat South Korean Hong Moo Won 30- 11 on points in another quarterfinal match.
"We have aimed at a major breakthrough at this Olympic Games, but we didn't give much pressure to ourselves," said Li Qingsheng, head coach of the Chinese boxing team.
"Therefore, Zou played all his matches in a fairly relaxed manner and fully displayed his strength," Li added.
Though the Armenian boxer played quite well in the previous rounds, Zou felt he was quite sure of beating him after "some careful analysis of his techniques", said Li.
Zou established an early lead 4-1 in the first round and had since well controlled the match. He was 9-3 ahead at the end of the second round and 15-6 at the end of the third.
Zou, a native of Zunyi city, Guizhou Province in southwest China, was a silver medalist in light flyweight at the 2003 world boxing championships in Bangkok.
Zou had defeated Rau Shee Warren of the United States and Endalkachew Kebede of Ethiopia to reach the quarterfinals.
China stuns boxing ring with two golds at Doha Asiad
Chinese boxers Zou Shiming and Hu Qing overpowered their opponents respectively in the last-day boxing finals, awarding China two golds from the ring at the Doha Asiad here on Wednesday.
Zou Shiming, the Chinese world champion, won the 48kg category for the first ever boxing gold medal for China in 16 years since the Beijing Asian Games.
Zou triumphed over Pannon Suban of Thailand with a stoppage victory in the second round with an overwhelming 21-1 lead.
The 24-year-old Chinese admitted that he was too nervous to sleep last night, but had managed to adjust himself when he was on the way to the stadium.
The Thai, a bronze medalist at the Busan Asiad, said that his Chinese opponent was strong and noble, but he could have survived to the last bout if the referee was fair.
China got its second gold of the day when Hu Qing outpointed Mukh Erdene Uranchimeg of Mongolia 38-22 in the 60kg lightweight final.
The 20-year-old was even unknown before the Asian Games, however, Uranchimeg was under pressure from the first punch and trailed 12-6 in the first round and 22-9 after the second. His blue singlet was drenched in sweat as he struggled to keep pace with Hu.
The dream of Chompuphuang Angkhan to become the only Thai to win the gold both in wushu and boxing in the Asian Games failed to come true as Kazakhstan's 2005 world champion Bakhyt Sarsekbayev won over him with a second-bout stoppage in the 69kg final.
Joan Tipon grabbed the second boxing gold for the Philippines with a 21-10 victory against South Korea's Han Soon Chul in the 54kg category.
Djakhon Kurbanov of Tajikistan got the 81kg gold medal by beating South Korean Song Hak Sung in the final, while the referee stopped the over 91kg final in the second bout as Uzbekistan Rustam Saidov was too much for Mukhtarkhan Didabekov of Kazakhstan