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Russians Give Cubans a Bruising

ST. PETERSBURG -- Cuba's vaunted boxing squad was forced to share the gold medals with Russia on the opening day of the finals at the Goodwill Games on Friday.


Cubans still won three of the six titles on offer but Vladislav Antonov beat Enrique Carrion in the bantamweight final and light middleweight Sergei Karavayev easily conquered Olympic champion Juan Lemus.


But with representatives in five of the six finals Saturday, Cuba could still improve on the haul of seven gold medals they won at the Barcelona Olympics two years ago.


After the first day of finals Cuba had three gold medals and two silver while Russian boxers took the other three golds and one silver medal.


Flyweight Manuel Mantilla gave Cuba a flying start in the opening bout by demolishing South Korea's Choi Joon-wok by an incredible score of 30-3 in a fight that should have been stopped well before the end.


Carrion had a poor fight against Antonov, who attacked the Cuban from the start and landed several good blows to the head in the first round.


Carrion, world champion silver medalist, looked more mobile as he danced around the ring but could not match the sheer punching power of the St. Petersburg student, who won 6-2.

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