ATHENS, Aug 17: World flyweight champion Somjit Jongjohor restored Thailand's pride with a relatively comfortable start to his Olympic boxing campaign on Tuesday.
Pakistan's Meherullah was also a first round winner with a comfortable 36-22 points victory against Kyrgystan's Aibek Abdymomunov in the bantamweight division.
Meherullsh's compatriot Asghar Ali Shah late on Monday scored a close 21-17 win over Volodymyr Kravets of Ukraine. Somjit recovered from a tentative start to out point South Korea's Kim Ki-suk 22-12, giving his country some consolation a day after former featherweight champion Somluck Kamsing made a shock first-round exit.
The victory was sweet revenge for the 29-year-old Somjit, who had lost to Kim twice, including in the semifinals of the Asian championships this year. Thailand have a strong boxing tradition, having won at least one boxing medal at the last six Games they attended.
The Asian country's two Olympic titles were won by boxers and all but one of Thailand's overall nine medals have been in boxing. Somjit faces a tough test in the next round against Cuba's Yuriorkis Gamboa, who started with a 46-33 decision over tough Moldovan Igori Samoilenco.
The bout was tighter than the score suggests, Samoilenco catching Gamboa several times with a powerful left hook, but speed and accuracy were on the Cuban's side. There were no problems for defending bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba, who danced his way to a 21-7 points decision over China's Liu Yuan.
Cuba, the dominant force in amateur boxing, have title contenders in all 11 weight classes. Eight of their fighters have been in action so far and all have easily survived the first round.
