The Cienfuegos native Erislandy Álvarez contributed Cuba's first medal at Paris 2024 this Thursday, after defeating the Thai Bunjong Sinsiri and securing his spot in the semifinals for the 63.5-kilogram category of Olympic boxing.
Álvarez, the world runner-up in Tashkent 2023, showed immense skill from start to finish in pursuit of "securing" the bronze medal and delivered a genuine lesson to Sinsiri, winning the unanimous decision (5-0) from the judges at the Paris North Arena ring.
"Now it's time to change the color of the medal. I'm going for the gold because that's what I want," he said to the press in statements published on the social network Facebook.
The fighter achieved his third victory in the event, as last Saturday he secured a technical knockout in his debut against the papuan John Ume and then easily defeated the Algerian Jugurtha Ait Bekka. His next match will be against the Georgian Lasha Guruli.
In this way, the largest of the Antilles keeps three of its boxers in the competition, as Alejandro Claro (51) and Arlen López (80), two-time Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020, still have chances. Previously, Julio César la Cruz (92) and Saidel Horta (57) were eliminated.
In López's case, he seeks to become the fourth boxer capable of winning the planet's main multi-sport event three times. It is worth noting that La Cruz was pursuing the same goal, but...
The story goes that this feat has only been achieved by the Hungarian Laszlo Papp (1948, 1952, 1956) and the Cubans Teófilo Stevenson (1972, 1976, 1980) and Félix Savón (1992, 1996, 2000).
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