Olympic Update: Ward Advances, Two Americans Lose

By Scott Shaffer

20/08/2004

Olympic Update: Ward Advances, Two Americans Lose

One of America’s brightest medal hopes, Rock Allen,had his Olympic competition ended by Bulgarian Boris Georgiev on Thursday. Georgiev tripled Allen’s point total, 30-10 in the light welterweight division. Also at welter, Willy Blain of France looked good in beating Russian Alexander Maletin 28-20. Italian Michele di Rocco and Cuban Yudel Johnson Cedeno also advanced by decision. At welter, Oleg Saitov nearly lost his chance at a third gold medal when he squeaked by Mohamed Hikal of Egypt by one official punch, 18-17. As expected eighteen-year old Vanes Martirosyan, born in Armenia but representing America, could not deal with the experience of three-time Olympian Lorenzo Aragon. The Cuban Aragon topped Martirosyan 20-11. It was mistakenly reported earlier this week that Haiti’s Andre Berto defeated France’s Xavier Noel, when in fact Noel was the victor. On Thursday, Noel was beaten by Viktor Polyakov of The Ukraine. The light heavyweights were also in action and America’s Andre Ward, who had a first round bye, topped Italy’s Clement Russo, 17-9. In a tough early match-up, Russian Evgeny Makarenko triumphed over Cuba’s Yoan Pablo Hernandez Suarez, 30–18.