Flyweight (≤51 kilograms), Men

After the early stages of the tournament were devoid of any major upsets, the 4 men who contested the semi-finals in Atlanta were all well-established championship performers. The first semi-final pitted the tournament favourite, Albert Pakeyev of Russia who had won the European Championship earlier in the year and the 4-time Cuban champion Maikro Romero. Romero proved the better man and won a clear points decision. The second semi was a rematch of the previous year’s World Championships final between Germany’s Zoltan Lunka and Bolat Zhumadilov of Kazakhstan. Lunka could not repeat his victory of 1995 and the Kazakh progressed to become his nation’s first Olympic boxing finalist. For the first two rounds of the final it appeared that the more mobile Zhumadilov was well on his way to the Olympic title and he led 8-5 as they entered the final three minutes of the bout. Sensing that the Kazakh was now tiring, Romero put everything he could into the final bout and with a flurry of two handed attacks pulled the score line back in his favour as they approached the final 30 seconds. At the final bell Romero held a solitary point advantage but it was enough to him to become the first Cuban Olympic champion in this weight division.