BOXING: It was a dominant performance from Caitlin Parker this afternoon at the International Expo Centre moving into tomorrow’s semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Satali Tevi-Fuimaono had a shock loss to Ukrainian Ramil Gadzhyiev in the preliminaries going down 3-0.
Parker entered the ring up against American Martha Fabela who she had already beaten on two previous occasions in the Women’s 75kg.
“It was a good warm up bout to get into the semis tomorrow. I’ve got a tough opponent tomorrow but I believe I can win the gold,” she said.
The Perth boxer used her strength and speed to put Fabela to the ropes and win all four rounds in a unanimous point’s decision.
“I knew what Fabela was like so I knew what I had to do to win,” the 18-year-old said.
Parker ranked number two will now take on number one ranked Elzbieta Wojcik from Poland in the semi final.
“I’ve fought her once before in the finals of the world championships. It was a very close bout so now I know what I can do to win,” Parker said.
There was great support for Parker in the stands this afternoon, cheering her all the way to victory.
“The support was awesome! It was so good to hear the crowd cheering for me,” the Youth Olympian said.
Tevi-Fuimaono went into his preliminary bout knowing it would be a hard bout but believed he could still progress to the semi-finals.
“It was a tough fight and he was a very good opponent. My preparation and warm up were great so I can’t put my loss down to that. I just got beaten by a better boxer on the day,” the Central Coast teenager said.
It’s not over for the middle weight boxer, the Youth Commonwealth Games is his next target once he returns home.
“I’ll be preparing myself for the Youth Commonwealth Games which are in Samoa next year and also hopefully make in to the Olympic Games in Rio.
The Youth Olympic Games has been an amazing part of Tevi-Fuimaono’s young career especially in terms of experiencing things outside the ring.
“It’s definitely been an eye opener seeing so many different countries and cultures come together,” Tevi-Fuimaono said.
Parker will take on Wojcik at 15:15 (CST) on Sunday with the winner moving through to the gold medal match.
Phillip Brent
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
