Two United States boxers won gold
medals on Thursday at the 2009 Women's Continental Championships at
the Abel Jimenez Parra Coliseum in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Light
welterweight Queen Underwood (Seattle, Wash.) recorded her second
straight dominating victory of the tournament, winning an 18-2
decision over Canada's Stephany Walker while light heavyweight Tika
Hemingway (Pittsburgh, Pa.) won a 5-2 victory over Canada's Melinda
Watpoole.
In addition to the
two gold medals, light flyweight Laura Ramirez (Bronx, N.Y.),
lightweight Patricia Manuel (Gardena, Calif.), and
welterweightAndrecia Wasson (Center Line, Mich.) won silver
medals by advancing to final round action.
Once again, Underwood dominated from the opening bell of her
bout, taking a strong 8-1 lead after two rounds of action. She
continued to control the contest in the second half of the bout,
holding Walker to only two scoring blows and landing seven of
her own in the final round to win the 18-2 victory and a gold
medal.
Hemingway faced off in a closer contest with her Canadian
opponent as the two battled in a low-scoring affair. After a
scoreless first round, Hemingway enjoyed a slim 2-1 advantage at
the midway mark in the bout. She continued to build slowly on
her lead, holding a three-point edge as the bout moved into the
final round. Hemingway maintained her lead over the final two
minutes to win a 5-2 final decision.
The United States'
three silver medalists suffered difficult losses to women's
boxing powerhouse, Brazil. Ramirez dropped a 15-2 decision to
Brazil's Erika Mattos in the light flyweight championship
contest, struggling to score against the Brazilian. After two
strong wins earlier in the tournament, Manuel dropped a tough
28-7 decision to Brazil's Adrianna Arallio. Wasson lost a 5-4
heartbreaker to Brazil's Andrea Bandera in the welterweight
final. The American boxer held a one-point lead after each of
the first three rounds but couldn't hold Bandera off in the
fourth, dropping the 5-4 decision.
In addition to the two gold and three silver medals, Team USA
also claimed three bronzes at the event with flyweightMarlen
Esparza (Houston, Texas), featherweight Liz Leddy (Portland,
Maine), and middleweight Alyssa DeFazio(Peoria, Ariz.) all
taking home hardware. The United States placed third in the team
standings with their eight medals in Guayaquil.
USA Boxing, as the national governing body for Olympic-style
boxing, is the United States' member organization of the
International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) and a member of
the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). It is responsible
for the selection and management of the United States Olympic
Boxing Team, and for the governance and oversight of USA
Boxing's national organization of 38,000 members, 1,400
individual boxing clubs, and 1,600 sanctioned events annually.
