Tam wins Asian boxing gold medal
VGP — Nguyen Thi Tam was crowned champion at the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships on November 11 in Amman, Jordan.
Nguyen Thi Tam of Viet Nam (left) lands a punch on Japanese Tsukimi Namiki during their final of the Asian Elite Boxing Championships in Jordan. Tam wins to take a gold medal.
The Vietnamese No 1 boxer defeated Japanese rival Tsukimi Namiki 30-27 after three rounds of the women's light flyweight 50kg category.
Tam, who won a title from this tournament in 2017, came to Amman with a target of a second continental gold medal.
Although she was not in the high-ranking seed group but she did a good job showing her outstanding performance.
Namiki was considered a tough rival for Tam as she secured a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics on her home town. In Tokyo event, Tam was ousted from the first round.
Tam made use of her better height and longer arm span to land series of punches on Namiki, who on the other hand tried to approached Tam as close as possible to attack.
Namiki was the winner of the first round with four out of five judges gave her better points.
In the second round, SEA Games champion Tam overshadowed her rival with her hooks from both hands and pocketed her win.
She continued her tactic in the last round while Namiki struggled to resist Tam's attacks.
In the final, three judges picked Tam as winner while Namiki received nods from two.
Tam was the only athlete from Viet Nam advanced to the gold-medal match.
The 28-year-old overcame No 3 seed Kang Do-yeon from South Korea in the semi-finals. Earlier, she beat No 1 Yokubova Aziza of Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals and Philippines' Aira Cordero Villegas in the first round./.
