Ukraine's boxing squad finished top of the medal table at the amateur world championship as four of their fighters won final bouts here on Saturday. Vasyl Lomachenko in the lightweight, Taras Shelestyuk in welterweight, Ievgen Khytrov in middleweight and Oleksandr Usyk in heavyweight all finished as top dogs, while Denys Berinchyk won a silver light welterweight medal.
Beijing Olympic light flyweight champion and two-time world champion Zou Shiming of China added third world crown to his trophy cabinet, confidently beating 20-11 this year's Asian champion Jong Hoon Shin of South Korea. The 30-year-old veteran Shiming, top ranked here, was in complete command in the final, winning all three rounds (4-3, 9-3, 7-5) to pocket the gold medal.
European flyweight champion and top seed here Misha Aloyan of Russia clinched the world's gold in a tough bout against Welsh European champion Andrew Selby winning it 13-12. "I already met Selby in February and won that fight easily," Aloyan said. "Today, in my first ever world championship's final, it was much, much harder. Selby is very strong and skilled opponent and performed very good boxing today."
In the bantamweight category Cuba's cadet world champion and Pan-American qualifying tournament winner Lazaro Alvarez Estrada outscored England's European champion Luke Campbell for a 14-10 win. Ukraine's living legend, Beijing Olympics winner and world champion Lomachenko overcame Pan-American champion Yasniel Toledo Lopez of Cuba 17-12 in the lightweight category.
In the light welterweight Everton Lopes, the first Brazilian to reach the final, beat Ukraine's hard-hitter Berinchyk 26-23 for an historic victory. Kazakhstan's two-time world champion and Asian Games winner Serik Sapiyev missed out on a third world title in suffering a 16-10 defeat to Ukraine's Shelestyuk in the welterweight. Meanwhile, Ukraine's European cup winner Khytrov beat 24-22 Japanese middleweight Ryota Murata, who had stunned world champion Abbos Atoev in the opening bout.
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