BEN WHITTAKER’S quest for Olympic gold ended in a convincing defeat by Cuban Arlen Lopez in the light-heavyweight final.
The 24-year-old from Darlaston, West Midlands had to settle for silver as he was out-boxed by Lopez, the middleweight champion from Rio five years ago.
It left Team GB still waiting for a first boxing gold of the Tokyo Games, despite claiming a haul of six medals.
Lopez, far busier in his workrate, earned the decision of four of the five judges, with the rangey Whittaker unable to make much impact.
Earlier, super-heavyweight Frazer Clarke was stopped in the final round of his semi-final against the giant Uzbek Bakhodir Jalolov.
Jalolov reopened a deep cut over the Brit’s eye, which he had suffered in his quarter-final win.
The big man from Burton is captain of the British team – who still have two chances of gold, through flyweight Galal Yafai and women’s middleweight Lauren Price, who are both through to the semi-finals.
And Clarke, 29, said: “It’s not the fairytale I wanted but I’m proud.
“The last six months I’ve made more sacrifices for boxing than I had in the previous 18 years.
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“Maybe I could have carried out the gameplan a bit better but Jabolov is a great fighter.
“I’m a little bit gutted, I wanted to get to the final, but It’s been an absolute pleasure to captain these guys.
“I’ve been captain on paper but there are 11 captains.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
