(NOV 17)
(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) - Two
of Team USA’s most decorated athletes kicked off the 2014 Elite
Women’s World Championships with victories in preliminary action
on Monday in Jeju, South Korea. Flyweight
Marlen Esparza
(Houston, Texas) and
featherweight
Tiara Brown
(Fort Myers, Fla.) each opened
competition with first round wins to advance in tournament
action at the Halla Gymnasium.
Esparza competed in the day’s
early session, taking on Mongolia’s
Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam
in flyweight action. The 2012 Olympic bronze medalist claimed a
2-0 victory over the 2014 Asian Games bronze medalist in their
bout to move on to a second round match-up with Kazakhstan’s
Merjen Ishanguliyeva
on Wednesday afternoon.
Brown faced off with Poland’s
Aneta Rygielska
in her opening bout of the
tournament on Monday night. The reigning world champion pulled
out a 2-1 victory over Rygielska in the featherweight match-up
to join Esparza in the second round. Brown will return for
second round competition on Thursday evening in a match-up with
Bulgaria’s
Svetlana Staneva.
Three American boxers will
compete on Tuesday with light flyweight
Alex Love
(Fort Carson, Colo.) and
bantamweight
Christina Cruz
(New York, N.Y.) competing in the
2 p.m. session and lightweight
Queen Underwood
(Seattle, Wash.) boxing in the
evening. Love will face Australia’s
Lauren Camilleri
at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET) and Cruz
will battle Bulgaria’s
Stanmira Petrova
at 4:30 p.m. local time (2:30
a.m. ET). Underwood will close the day’s competition in a
match-up with Bulgaria’s
Denitsa Eliseeva
at approximately 8:30 p.m. local
time (6:30 a.m.).
All of the tournament action is
being live streamed at
www.aiba.org.
U.S. Results
112 lbs/51 kg:
Marlen Esparza, Houston,
Texas/USA
dec. Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam,
MGL, 2-0
125 lbs/57 kg:
Tiara Brown, Fort Myers, Fla./USA
dec. Aneta Rygielska, POL, 2-1
