Sydney, September 30: Felix Savon became enshrined in Olympic boxing history with his third consecutive heavyweight gold medal as Cuba won four finals here on Saturday. But Savon almost missed out on his regal coronation having to survive the drama of an ugly gash beneath his left eye with seconds remaining in his title fight with Russian Sultanahmed Ibzagimov. Australian referee Wayne Rose halted the bout to inspect the slit just under his eye. Blood was trickling from the cut, first opened during his semi-final win over German Sebastian Kober, and it was feared the fight might be stopped in the Russian’s favour. But Rose allowed the fight to continue after wiping Savon’s wound and the Cuban colossus kept out of harm’s way over the final seconds to win the fight on points 21-13 and enter Olympic boxing immortality. The 33-year-old Cuban legend, who has dominated amateur boxing since 1986 winning six world titles, equalled the Olympic record of Hungarian Lazlo Papp and countryman and fellow heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson with three boxing golds each. “I have won to create history for Cuban sport,†said Savon, who has persistently refused to cash in on his talents and turn professional preferring to box for the glory of his communist island. Savon’s crowning achievement and the likelihood that it will be his final Olympic fight capped a magnificent day in the ring for Cuba. The Caribbean boxing superpowers cleaned up all four of their finals on the first day of semi-finals to repeat their success at the last Atlanta Games of four gold.Cuba’s other gold medallists were bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, lightweight Mario Kindelan and middleweight Jorge Gutierrez. France were celebrating their first Olympic boxing gold medal in 64 years with the victory of light-flyweight Brahim Asloum over Spain’s Rafael Lozano.
