Galal Yafai won Britain’s first boxing gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, beating Carlo Paalam of the Philippines 4:1 in the flyweight last Saturday.
Yafai, the 28-year-old younger brother of two professional boxers from Birmingham, is a two-time Olympian who had a impressive run in Tokyo. He finished by knocking down Paalam in the first round of the gold medal session and continuing for an agreeable success.
“Being Olympic champion is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m Olympic champion now and I’m over the moon,” Yafai said. “I’ve worked hard, I took up boxing and thank god it worked out for me.
“I trained hard, gave it everything, and it just shows that if you work hard, you can get the rewards.
“I don’t know if, at every moment, I knew or believed that I was going to be Olympic champion.
“My friends, family, brothers will be over the moon. Everyone back in Birmingham, the support I’ve had has been ridiculous, I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who has supported me.”
England’s stalwart group has won two silvers and two bronzes to go with Yafai’s gold in Tokyo. Middleweight Lauren Price battles Sunday for another gold.
Paalam missed the short concerning winning the main Olympic boxing gold medal in the history of the Philippines subsequent to knocking off defending gold medalist Shakhoibidin Zoirov en route to the last. The Filipino group is as yet heading home from Tokyo with two silver medals and a bronze in the wake of winning only five enclosing awards their whole past Olympic history.
Ryomei Tanaka of Japan and Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan won bronze medals. Yafai beat Bibossinov in an thrilling semifinal.