Slick Sotolongo ends Cuban gold drought

Classy Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo won Cuba's first boxing gold in
eight years on Saturday when he beat Ukraine's Denys Berinchyk in a
battle that pitted the great amateur boxing nation against the rising
force of the sport.
Sotolongo, one of the most clinical boxers at the Games who beat
world light-welterweight champion Everton dos Santos Lopes of Brazil on
his way to the final, caught the aggressive Ukrainian with one left
upper cut too many to win 22-15.

Sotolongo, one of four Cuban bronze medallists at the Beijing Games,
took a tight first round 5-4 after both men came out aggressively,
trading powerful right and left jabs, and the Cuban's left upper-cut
proved the difference.

It was the same story in the second round with the 23-year-old Cuban
proving too quick for Berinchyk who has sported one of the oddest
haircuts at the Olympics, an eye-catching mostly shaved style with a
lengthy piece of hair left on top.

The Ukrainian world championship silver medallist may have produced
one of the tournament's best rounds in the semi-finals, scoring more
points in the final three minutes than most have managed in nine, but
there was little chance of a repeat on Saturday.

Sotolongo was just as relentless in the final round, delivering a
series of stinging right jabs before beating his chest as the final bell
rang and waving the Cuban flag in a victory lap of honour once the
result was confirmed.

His teenage team mate, the thrilling Robeisy Ramirez Carrazana, has a
chance of a second Cuban gold on Sunday while two of Berinchyk's
colleagues, including Vasyl Lomachenko, can still hand Ukraine a first
success of the Games.

Losing semi-finalists Vincenzo Mangiacapre of Italy and Munkh-Erdene
Uranchimeg of Mongolia took bronze. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin and
Patrick Johnston;