Correa fails to live up to dad’s golden legacy

If Vasyl Lomachenko was a sprinter instead of a boxer, or if he swam laps rather than making his opponents’ heads swim...

If Vasyl Lomachenko was a sprinter instead of a boxer, or if he swam laps rather than making his opponents’ heads swim, his dazzling Olympic performance would have been the talk of Beijing and beyond.

The Ukrainian featherweight will have to settle for a gold medal and his fellow fighters’ reverent respect after the 20-year-old dynamo’s two-week run as the best thing in the Beijing ring.

Lomachenko stopped France’s Khedafi Djelkhir in the first round to capture his first Olympic title Saturday night, while Russian heavyweight Rakhim Chakhkiev and British middleweight James Degale also won gold as the boxing tournament crowned its first five Olympic champions.

Thai flyweight Somjit Jongjohor also won his first gold at 33, and light welterweight Felix Diaz claimed the Dominican Republic’s first boxing title with an upset of defending Olympic champion Manus Boonjumnong.

Degale and Correa spent much of their sloppy bout in each other’s arms, though Degale fought well enough early on to build a lead. After both were hit with two-point penalties for rules violations, both fighters abandoned all technique in the final rounds while Degale slogged to the 16-14 win.

The 22-year-old Degale was booed by the Cuban-sympathetic Chinese fans on the medal podium, but he didn’t seem to hear it. “It was a bit scrappy,” Degale said. “He’s strong. There were only bits in the fight where I fought my way. It was not pretty. I don’t think it was the best fight we could have fought.”

Correa fell short of following the success of his father, Emilio Sr., who won gold for Cuba in 1972. “He gave me lots of advice before I came to Beijing, but I won a medal in the Olympics and that makes me very proud,” Correa said.