This past Thursday we knew that Wyatt Sanford of Kennetcook, Nova Scotia was going to win a medal in Olympic boxing. We just did not know what colour. On Sunday, we found out that the medal would be bronze from the men’s 63.5 kilogram weight class.
Sanford lost his semifinal fight by a score of 4-1 to Sofiane Oumiha of France. The judging was a little bit questionable to say the least. There is no doubt that Sanford lost the first round. However, the fact that Oumiha won the second round was a marginal surprise. Sanford did win the third round without a doubt, but by the time he lost the first two rounds, he needed to do something special in the third round (for example knock Oumiha out) to win the bout. That did not happen and Sanford came away with a third place finish.
Oumiha will now fight in the gold medal bout against Erislandy Alvarez of Cuba. The other bronze medalist in the men’s 63.5 kilogram weight class was Lasha Guruli of Georgia.
Oumiha is one of two boxers who are representing France in a men’s boxing weight class gold medal bout. The other is Billal Bennama in the men’s 51 kilogram division. Bennama will fight Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan for gold. Meanwhile, in the men’s +92 kilogram division, Djamili-Dini Aboudou Moindze of France will fight in the semifinal against Ayoub Ghadfa of Spain.
