ONE BARBADOS HOPEFUL is down for the count – after three standing eight counts.
Forget the tournament’s first round, Jenny Benedict couldn’t make it past her bout’s first round, having her 60kg fight against Ukraine’s Oleksandra Sydorenko prematurely ended during Thursday night’s action of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
It wasn’t for a lack of support, or even enthusiasm, as the teenaged tiger came out of the blue corner swinging from the opening bell much to the approval of a raucous home crowd.
But none of those initial hooks scored, while Sydorenko landed a pair of jabs and one sound right hook to the head of the tenacious teen.
That aggression seemed to work briefly in Benedict’s favour when she scored on two successive punches to cut the deficit to a single point.
However, the hometown lass quickly lost her shape, forcing the referee to step in and break the fighters before he was called in to action just 30 seconds later after Sydorenko rattled off a flurry of blows to send Benedict reeling.
The ‘A’ ring wasn’t so harsh to European silver medallist Denitsa Eliseeva though, as the highly rated Bulgarian narrowly won her first round 60kg bout against Switzerland’s Sandra Bruegger 9-8 on points.
Eliseeva actually fell behind 2-1 early before countering via a pair of quick right hooks to take a 4-3 advantage by the end of the second round.
And she never trailed again, though having to survive an initial flurry in the ensuing third round before trading hooks to end the bout.
Fellow 60 kg title contender Amanda Coulson didn’t follow suit though, failing to advance out of the first round after the English favourite got on the wrong end of an 8-5 points decision versus Tajikistan’s Mavzuna Chorieva.
Coulson had no one to blame but herself on this occasion, refusing to use her superior length as the shorter Chorieva was allowed to get inside for numerous body blows.
A 2-1 lead soon became a 7-4 advantage by the end of the third when Coulson had to become more aggressive, leaving several openings for quick counterattacks.
Despite tiring in the fourth, Chorieva managed to hold as Coulson failed to score on any of her combinations to open the round.
Turkish Prime Ministry Tournament winner Claire Ghabrial of Australia was an easy winner against Heidy Franco of Panama in that 60kg category while the United States’ Queen Underwood stopped Karina Mamarandy of Ecuador in the first round of their bout.
Barbados won’t enter the ring again until the Narine sisters – Gheta and Molissa – take to the ring tomorrow for their 57 and 64kg bouts, respectively.
