Richardson keeps GB hopes alive in Olympic boxing

Lewis Richardson kept Team GB’s hopes alive in the Olympic boxing ring with a split-decision victory over Serbia’s Vakhid Abbasov.

Of the six British boxers in Paris, five exited in the first round – a far cry from the Tokyo Games three years ago, when GB won six medals, including two golds, for their biggest Olympic haul since 1920.

Light-middleweight Richardson remains in the hunt, though, after edging to a 3-2 decision against 2022 European champion Abbasov.

Richardson, 27, will face Jordan’s Zeyad Eashash in the quarter-finals.

“I’m over the moon to get the first victory out of the way,” he told BBC Sport. “I’m extremely happy and extremely proud of myself for making it happen.

“It was a very close bout. We knew he was an extremely classy operator, and we knew it was going to be technical. I just stayed disciplined, and stayed focused.”

Earlier on Wednesday, middleweight Chantelle Reid suffered a narrow loss as the judges handed a 3-2 victory to Morocco’s Khadija Mardi.

That followed defeats for Pat Brown, Charley Davison, Rosie Eccles and Delicious Orie – the final three of which were a result of controversial judging decisions.

Great Britain are the third most successful boxing nation in Olympic history, having won 18 gold, 13 silver and 25 bronze medals.

But not since the 1996 Olympics have they left a Games empty-handed – a run Richardson will look to keep going on his long-awaited Olympic debut.

He missed out on qualification for the Tokyo Olympics because of stress fractures in his back, before having to drop a weight class after the 75kg category was removed from the programme for Paris.

“I’ve come through a lot of adversity to even be at these Olympic Games, obstacles in my way that made the majority of people think the Olympic dream wasn’t meant to be for me,” Richardson added.

“We made it happen and got the first one out of the way.”

There was victory too on Wednesday for Bolton-based Cindy Ngamba of the Refugee Olympic Team.

Ngamba, the first refugee to box at an Olympics, has lived in England for 15 years and trains with the GB team.

The middleweight beat Canadian Tammara Thibeault on a split decision to reach the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Kellie Harrington is guaranteed a medal after beating Colombia’s Angie Valdes Pana in the quarter-final of the 60kg division.