Canada's Wyatt Sanford, left, fights Bulgaria's Radoslav Rosenov in their men's 63.5 kg preliminary boxing match on July 29, in Paris.Ariana Cubillos/The Associated Press
Canada’s Wyatt Sanford made his Olympic debut with a dominant win over Bulgaria’s Radoslav Rosenov in the men’s 63.5-kilogram Round of 16 Monday.
All five judges awarded the victory to Sanford, who was a unanimous winner of Rounds 1 and 2.
Rosenov won Round 3 in a 3-2 split.
“Great way to start, great way to get the tournament going. It’s nice to be put in the top eight and we are one win away from a medal now,” Sanford said.
Sanford, who had a bye in the first round as the top seed in the event, will face Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Abdullaev in Thursday’s quarter-finals.
Sanford and Montreal’s Tammara Thibeault, competing in the women’s 75-kg division, are the only Canadian boxers in Paris and are aiming to end a Canadian boxing medal dry spell that dates back to heavyweight David Defiagbon’s silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Thibeault will meet Cindy Ngamba, a Cameroonian boxer fighting for the EOC Refugee Team, in her first bout on Wednesday.
“Boxing in Canada has had a bit of a drought in the last few Olympics. But it goes to show that if either me or Tammara can pick up a medal or we both can, then all the changes that Boxing Canada have made over recent years to enhance the training, have paid off,” he said.
The 25-year-old from Kennetcook, N.S., won gold in the 63.5-kg event in his Pan American Games debut last year in Santiago, Chile.
He is a four-time Canadian youth champion and won his first senior title in 2018 in the 64-kg weight class.
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