American Boxers Go Home Without Gold
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ American boxers will go home from an Olympics without a gold medal for the first time since 1948.
Ricardo Williams Jr. of Cincinnati, who had outpointed Diogenes Luna of Cuba 42-41 in a semifinal bout, settled for a silver medal when he lost 27-20 to Abdullaev Mahamadkadyz of Uzbekistan in the 139-pound final.
World champion Rocky Juarez of Houston could not get inside enough against a clutching, grabbing Bekzal Sattarkhanov of Kazakstan, and lost 22-14 at 125 pounds. The defeat snapped the 20-year-old Juarez' two-year winning streak at 68 bouts.
"I did all I could do, but it wasn't good enough," Juarez said. "I didn't come here to get the silver medal. I'm disappointed."
Juarez complained about Sattarkhanov's holding tactics throughout the bout. "I think he should have been disqualified," Juarez said.
U.S. team manager Gary Toney said he would file a protest, charging that Russian referee Stanislav Kirsanov cautioned Sattarkhanov nine times but never issued a warning that could have cost the fighter points or led to a disqualification.
"I have no idea why the referee was allowing it," said Toney, who acknowledged the appeal would likely fall through.
Two Americans earned bronze medals _ Clarence Vinson of Washington, D.C., at 119 pounds and Jermain Taylor of Little Rock, Ark., at 156 pounds. The four medals are two less than Americans won in 1996 at Atlanta (one gold and five bronze) and one more than they collected in 1992 at Barcelona (one gold, one silver, one bronze).
Cuba, which had no boxers in Sunday's six finals, matched its Atlanta total of four golds on Saturday. One of them was the third for heavyweight Felix Savon. Two Cubans also got two bronze medals.
The 5-foot-3 Juarez, four inches shorter than his opponent, got hit repeatedly by left hands and trailed 15-4 after two rounds.
Then trailing 17-8 in the second round, Juarez landed five of the next six scoring blows, but Sattakhanov got home two scoring punches in the closing seconds for a 20-13 lead.
Juarez kept charging forward and Sattarkhanov kept wrapping him up in the final round.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
