Taiwanese female boxers Chen Nien-chin (陳念琴) and Wu Shih-yi (吳詩儀) on Sunday clinched gold medals in their respective weight divisions at this year’s International Boxing Tournament (Strandja) in Bulgaria.
Competing in the women’s 70kg division, 27-year-old Chen, who won bronze at the Paris Olympics last year, defeated Elisavet Konstantinidou of Greece 4-0 in the final to win gold.
The victory marked Chen’s first gold medal at an international competition this year.
Photo courtesy of Ko Wen-ning via CNA
Meanwhile, Paris Olympic bronze medalist Wu also won gold after beating Aidana Zabynbekova of Kazakhstan 4-0 in the women’s 57kg division.
Ko Wen-ming (柯文明), the team’s coach, praised the performance of the boxers, adding that the gold medal wins certainly help boost their confidence as they are competing in different weight classes this year.
Despite the change, they still managed to come out victorious, Ko said.
Chen and Wu competed in the 66kg and 60kg divisions respectively at the Paris Olympics.
Ko praised Wu for keeping her composure as the Kazakh boxer clinched and threw punches wildly, but, fortunately, Wu had enough experience to counter her opponent.
Chen, despite facing a formidable fighter, still came out on top, he said.
“Although Nien-chin won the gold medal, she still didn’t fully execute some of the strategies and punches we planned before the bout. There is still room for improvement,” Ko said.
The 76th edition of the Strandja, which is the oldest international boxing tournament in Europe, closed on Sunday.
Ko said the two boxers would return to Taiwan before heading off to participate in an event organized by World Boxing at the end of this month.
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