RIO DE JANEIRO
Kenya’s Rayton Nduku Okwiri produced the biggest shock of the boxing so far at the Rio Games on Sunday when he defeated Russia’s welterweight London bronze medallist on a split decision.
The 9,000-seat arena gave the Russian boxers and a smattering of their fans a few half-hearted boos, after all 11 of the country’s fighters were cleared to compete in Rio despite revelations of rampant state-run doping across Russian sports.
Okwiri was the underdog against Andrei Zamkovoi, who won bronze four years ago, in their welterweight clash.
But he made a nonsense of that and quickly endeared himself to the largely Brazilian crowd, who booed when the few Russian supporters chanted and shouted “Kenya! Kenya!” as the 30-year-old Okwiri kept pursuing his foe.
GOOD GAME PLAN
“We were prepared and we had a good game plan with the coaches and everything went as well as we had prepared,” said the Kenyan.
“Having the crowd on my side helped me a lot because when I punched I could hear them shouting so I gained a lot of confidence.”
Earlier, another Russian, Adlan Abdurashidov declined to speak to media after outclassing Thadius Katua in the lightweight class.
Abdurashidov was the classier fighter in earning a unanimous points decision over the Papua New Guinea man, who grew up using punchbags filled with sawdust and would lay rope on the ground as a makeshift ring in his village.
