American Gomez settles for silver medal at world championships

Associated Press

Cuba’s Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo, right, fights against Frankie Gomez of the United States, during a men’s lightweight boxing final match, at the AIBA World Boxing Championships, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009. Iglesias Sotolongo won the match.

By Jeremy Inson, AP Writer

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 | midnight

MILAN — Light welterweight Frankie Gomez settled for silver at the world boxing championships Saturday, losing 8-2 to Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo in the finals and wrapping up another disappointing international tournament for the United States.

Gomez was the only American to make the finals, and had trouble dealing with the experience and longer reach of the Cuban fighter.

“I’m disappointed,” Gomez said. “This is only my second tournament and first open tournament. His extra height wasn’t a difference, only the extra experience he has. I wanted to win the gold, but my coach and the team are happy that I got the silver.”

The U.S. was coming off its worst showing in Olympic history, prompting coach Dan Campbell to retire. Campbell was in charge of the nine American fighters last summer in Beijing, winning just one medal. The U.S. team hadn’t left the Olympics with fewer than two medals since 1948.

Russia dominated the world championships, winning gold at light heavyweight and heavyweight, along with four silver medals. Host nation Italy also won a pair of gold medals, including Olympic super heavyweight champion Roberto Cammarelle, who defended his world title by beating Ukraine’s Roman Kapitonenko 10-5 at the Milan Forum.

Cammarelle started tentatively and finished the first round tied at 2, but slowly built an 8-4 lead, with Kapitonenko taking two standing counts following a pair of powerful lefts.

“I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did,” Cammarelle said. “I knew it would be a good match and I knew he would be a great opponent. Physically he is strong and I knew he would put in hard shots at the start, meaning I had to make sure I didn’t drop my guard.”

Domenico Valentino also won gold for Italy, defeating Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraze 9-4 to take the lightweight title.

The fight began slowly before Valentino rallied from a two-point deficit to take a 5-3 lead at the end of the second round. Valentino then held on to win his third medal in three world championships, after a silver in 2007 and bronze in ’05.

“Someone should slap me,” Valentino said, “I still don’t believe it.”

Russia was led by Artur Beterbiev, who came from behind in the final round to beat Elshod Rasulov from Uzbekistan 13-10 in the light heavyweight final. Egor Mekhontsev beat Cuba’s Osmai Acosta Duarte 12-2 to take the heavyweight title.

Olympic featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko added the world title to his collection with a 12-1 rout of Sergey Vodopiyanov. The Ukrainian used quick feet to get close to Vodopiyanov, while the Russian couldn’t use his longer reach to break through his opponent’s solid defense.

Olympic silver medalist Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia defeated David Ayrapetyan of Russia 10-5 to take the light flyweight gold. The other Mongolian in a final, Tugstsogt Nyambayar, lost 18-2 to McWilliams Arroyo of Puerto Rico for the flyweight title.

At bantamweight, Bulgaria’s Detelin Dalakliev nearly let the gold medal slip away after dominating Eduard Abzalimov of Russia. Abzalimov to drew level in the final minute before Dalakliev landed two shots to win 5-3.

In other bouts, Jack Culcay-Keth from Germany defeated Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia 7-4 to win the welterweight final, and Abbos Atoev of Uzbekhistan won the middleweight title by beating Armenia’s Andranik Hakobyan 9-0.