Damar Thomas and Chantelle Reid will box for European titles on Friday after reaching their respective finals at the European Boxing Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, as Great Britain secured a minimum haul of five medals.
Thomas advanced from the men’s over-90kg semi-final with a unanimous-decision win over Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Abdullayev. Reid recovered from losing the opening round against Serbia’s Milena Matovic to win their light-middleweight contest 3-2.
Dimeji Shittu, Callum Makin and Abdul Burton have also guaranteed medals, meaning five members of the 15-strong British squad will leave the championships with podium places. Thomas and Reid now have the opportunity to improve that return by winning gold-medal bouts.
Thomas sets up Surov test in super-heavyweight final
Londoner Thomas was reported by Sky Sports to have controlled all three rounds against Abdullayev, earning every judge’s vote in the semi-final. The victory followed his 5-0 quarter-final success over Georgia’s Nikoloz Begadze.
The 21-year-old will face Russia’s David Surov in Friday’s final. Sky Sports reported that Russia has returned to World Boxing competition, setting up Thomas’s meeting with Surov for the championship.
Thomas said he believed he was developing into the boxer he had expected to become. He said a European title would represent another objective achieved after his Commonwealth Games success, while he also identified Olympic gold as a longer-term ambition.
His progress gives Great Britain a finalist in the tournament’s heaviest men’s division. The unanimous score against Abdullayev also contrasted with the narrower decisions that have featured elsewhere in the British team’s campaign, underlining the clarity of Thomas’s semi-final result rather than guaranteeing the outcome against Surov.
Reid overturns first-round deficit against Matovic
Reid’s route to the light-middleweight final required a response after Matovic took the first round 3-2. According to Sky Sports, the Paris Olympian won the second round 5-0 before edging the third round to take the bout by a 3-2 verdict.
She will meet Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli in Friday’s gold-medal match. Reid said she had followed her coaches’ plan after falling behind and felt that the standard of opposition had increased with each contest. She described Surmeneli as one of the leading boxers in the division and said winning gold would carry major personal significance.
The semi-final win built on Reid’s 5-0 quarter-final victory over Ireland’s Evelyn Igharo. The BBC reported that the 28-year-old had entered the last four as a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, before she overcame Matovic to become one of two British finalists.
The two final places came through contrasting semi-final paths. Thomas’s result was unanimous, while Reid had to reverse the position after the opening round. Both results nevertheless leave the British team with opportunities to add European titles to the medals already secured in Sofia.
Three more medals already secured
Shittu at 80kg, Makin at 75kg and Burton at 55kg complete the five confirmed British medallists. The supplied reports do not establish the colour of the medals that the three boxers will receive, while Thomas and Reid remain in contention to convert their guaranteed medals into titles.
Burton had secured his medal position with a 3-2 quarter-final win over Javier Ibanez, whom the BBC described as a home favourite and Olympic bronze medallist. That result sent Burton into a semi-final against Turkey’s Semih Gumus.
Before the latest semi-finals, the BBC reported that more than half of Great Britain’s 15-person team had already been eliminated. It cited defeats for flyweight Ruby White, light-heavyweight Emily Asquith and heavyweight Isaac Okoh among the results that had reduced the squad.
White lost 3-2 to Turkey’s Olympic silver medallist Hatice Akbas, while Asquith was beaten 5-0 by Ireland’s Lisa O’Rourke. Okoh, identified by the BBC as a Commonwealth Games champion, exited after a 3-0 defeat to Germany’s Kevin Lebowski in the men’s heavyweight division.
Those results provide context for the five guaranteed medals from the 15-boxer squad. Friday’s two finals will determine whether Great Britain’s confirmed podium total includes European champions, with Thomas and Reid carrying those chances.