Welterweight (≤69 kilograms), Men

Unsurprisingly the two favourites and top seeded fighters in the welterweight division were the two men who reached the World Championship final a year earlier, Taras Shelestiuk of Ukraine and the Kazakh fighter Serik Sapiyev. Behind those two as many as a dozen other boxers had serious hopes of a medal. After a quiet first series of bouts controversy reared its’ head in the second round of fights when the result of the match-up between American Errol Spence and Vikas Krishan Yadav of India was overturned when it was decided the referee had failed to issue two warnings to the Indian fighter in the final round.

The quarter-finals also saw an outbreak of bickering over two bouts which were both decided on countback after a tie. Fred Evans, the European champion from Great Britain, scored a contentious victory over Canada’s Custio Clayton whilst Frenchman Alexis Vastine exited the ring in floods of tears when he lost an unpopular decision to Shelestiuk. Inspired by the home crowd Evans then picked up an upset victory over Shelestiuk to book a meeting with Sapiyez in the gold medal decider. Up to the final Sapiyev had been amongst the most impressive performers in the whole boxing tournament and, despite the noise emanating from the home support, he was a class above his British opponent in each of the three rounds and kept up his nations’ record of winning at least one boxing title at each Olympic Games they have attended. For his performances Sapiyev was awarded the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding boxer of the Games.