Tokyo Olympics: Jalal Yafai wins men’s flyweight boxing gold by defeating Carlo Balam

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Briton Galai Yafai knocks out Carlo Balam in the first round Dates: July 23 – August 8 Time in Tokyo: BST + 8 Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen to BBC 5 Live Radio, Sports Extra and Sounds; Live text and video clips on the BBC Sport website and app.

Britain’s Jalal Yafai is the Olympic flyweight champion after his impressive victory over Carlo Balam of the Philippines in Tokyo.

Yafai, 28, secured a 4-1 decision at Kokugikan Stadium to claim Britain’s 19th gold medal at the Games.

In a thrilling start, the Briton knocked out his opponent after just 90 seconds en route to victory.

Britain won 59 medals – 19 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze – compared to 65 at London 2012 and 67 at Rio 2016.

Balam, 23, had been aiming to become the first Filipino to win Olympic boxing gold, but was outflanked early on and was caught by two lefties in the opening round to bring him down.

All five judges gave Yafai the opening round and four of the five also gave him the second because he was impressed with his speed, movement and also landings with great uppercuts and left hooks, as well as body shots.

Balam won the third round over all five judges’ cards, but that wasn’t enough as Yafai netted a 29-28 win on four of the cards, the other in favor of the Filipino by the same margin.

Before the final, Yafei, younger brother of professional boxers Cal and Jamal, said getting the chance to fight for gold was “something I dreamed of and never got to see,” but added that he was reaping the rewards for years of hard work.

Proud boxing family

Birmingham fighter Yafay hails from a boxing family, with older brothers Cal and Jamal having great success in the professional ranks after starting out as amateurs.

The 32-year-old former world super flyweight represented Britain at the 2008 Olympics, lost in the round of 16, and won the European silver medal in 2010 before turning professional, winning 26 of 27 matches.

The 30-year-old won a European bronze medal in 2010 and became a professional four years later. As a professional, he has held Commonwealth titles and European superweight titles.

Before the final, Jalal thought about their upbringing and how their mother was constantly alerting him and his siblings because of the fight at home.

He said, “Mom always got mad—take off your gloves, stop hitting your little brother.”

“If we had a VCR at the time, you’d be surprised, it was meant to be. We’d fight every day in the sitting room with gloves on—these two kept me busy.”

But Jalal’s path to the Olympics was not easy, and six years ago he worked at a car factory.

“I was grafting food, picking up boxes, and dreaming of being in an Olympics,” he said. “I was doing litter, delivering spare parts, and it was just a very light job.”

However, he gave up that job to pursue his Olympic dream and qualified for Rio 2016, where he lost in the round of 16, before winning the European silver medal in the super flyweight in 2017 and then the Commonwealth gold in the same category at the 2018 Games on the Gold Coast in Australia .

Jalal (left), Jamal (centre) and Cal Yafai threw their collective weight behind Birmingham’s bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Yafai’s gold is the 19th British boxer to win the Olympics and becomes the 17th British fighter to win the gold medal.

He also became Britain’s first Olympic flyweight champion in 65 years – since Terry Spinks won gold in Melbourne in 1956. Nicola Adams won women’s flyweight gold in London 2012 and again in Rio four years later.

The GB team sent 11 boxers to Japan and won six medals, its most at the Games since Antwerp in 1920, despite winning three gold medals at London 2012.

Yafai is the first British woman to win a gold medal in boxing at Tokyo 2020 after Pat McCormack (welterweight) and Ben Whitaker (lightweight) won the silver and Fraser Clark (ultra heavyweight) and Karis Artingstal (women’s featherweight) collected the bronze medals.

Britain has now won at least one gold medal in boxing at each of the last four Olympics and five of the past six games after failing to win gold in seven consecutive competitions – between 1972 and 1996.

Lauren Price has a chance to win another British gold when she battles against China’s Li Qian in the women’s middleweight final on Sunday.

“Nice to Watch” – Analysis

Nicola Adams, two-time Olympic gold medalist on BBC Television

Left straight through middle, went down. This is the type of shot you want on the highlights reel. Punches in bunches.

Its remarkable versatility was exceptional. It was beautiful to watch. Dare I say, he’s the best boxer [out of the three brothers].

He kept his work rate high and took advantage of counterattacks.

More to track.

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