Box: Inspired Manus eliminates French world champion Blain

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2004
Box: Inspired Manus eliminates French world champion Blain

ATHENS, Aug 22 AFP - Inspired by his mother and his King, Thai boxer Manus Boonjumnong
upset world champion and gold medal favourite Willy Blain in the quarter-finals of the
Olympic light welterweight division tonight.

Manus dominated the bout from start to finish, outsmarting the Frenchman by forcing
him on to the front foot, then launching blistering counter-attacks.

Manus, who at 24 and 1.76 metres is two years younger and three centimetres taller
than Blain, won the fight 20-8 winner on points.

"The King rang me this morning, which made me feel stronger in the contest," Manus
told reporters afterwards.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who ascended to the throne in 1946 at the age of
18, is the world's longest serving monarch and the most revered figure in the southeast
Asian country.

Manus is guaranteed at least a bronze by progressing to the semi-finals and he dedicated
the medal to his mother, Malee. "It is her birthday today," he said with a smile.

In contrast, French team coach Dominique Mato said Blain, who was the gold medal favourite
after defeating Russian triple European champion Alexander Maletin in the previous round,
was "very stressed".

"Boonjumnong gave him many tactical problems, which Blain could not find a solution
to," Mato said.

The rangy Thai boxer got off to a great start, winning the first round 5-1 and shading
Blain 5-4 in the second round.

Realising he was well behind on points, Blain went on the attack in the third and got
punished on the counter-punch, losing the round 2-8.

Manus jogged to his corner at the end of the third round with his right glove above
his head in triumph, and he ensured the final round was a messy affair with lots of holding
so Blain could not launch a sustained comeback.

Manus' coach, Juan Buatista Fontanilis Queseda, said Blain fought a bad tactical fight.

"We know that when he (Blain) fights back he is very good, but my boy is taller. We
planned to make the French boxer change his tactics by coming forward. He did and it was
a tactical mistake," Fontanilis Queseda said.

Manus will take on Romanian Ionut Gheorghe, who beat Michele di Roco 29-18 yesterday,
in the semi-finals on Friday.

The other semi-final will be between Cuba's Yudel Johnson Cedeno, who beat Uzbekistan's
Dilshod Mahmudov 32-28 and Boris Georgiev from Bulgaria, a 20-18 victor over Kazakhstan's
Nurzhan Karimzhanov.

AFP mo

KEYWORD: OLY BOX

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