USA's Frankie Gomez takes gold in international amateur tourney

08/09/2007

USA's Frankie Gomez takes gold in international amateur tourney

Press Release: In his first major international event, bantamweight Frankie Gomez (Lincoln Heights, Calif.) took home gold. Gomez won his final round bout at the 2007 Cadet World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan to claim his first world championship. He won his fourth straight bout of the tournament with a convincing 35-19 victory over Elvin Aliyev of Azerbaijan to take the title. Gomez took the lead from the start of the bout, enjoying a strong first round to take a 9-4 advantage after the first. An outstanding second stanza of action pushed Gomez to a convincing 24-11 lead at the end of two. Yet he never took his foot off the gas, adding 11 points in the third round to take the 35-19 final victory.  Gomez’s gold is one of three medals for the United States at the 2007 Cadet World Championships with light flyweight Louie Byrd (Denver, Colo.) and Kavika Aupiu (Las Vegas, Nev.) winning bronze at the event. The growing parity in amateur boxing was evident with athletes from 13 nations competing in final round action and nine different countries walking away with gold medals in Azerbaijan.  India,  Russia and the  Ukraine led the gold medal count with two a piece while the United States, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Cuba and Puerto Rico all claimed one each.