Team GB’s boxing contingent for Rio 2016 now stands at ten after Savannah Marshall secured her spot on the plane to the Olympic Games with a quarter-final victory at the Women’s World Championships in Astana. The 25-year-old defeated Qian Li of China to obtain one of four Rio qualification places on offer at the Championships in the middleweight category. She will join flyweight Nicola Adams, who became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title in London four years ago, in the team bound for South America after she won the European qualifying event in Turkey earlier this year. The pair are now both guaranteed medals at the World Championships in Kazakhstan after Adams won her quarter-final against Anna Alimardanova, but will look to improve on a definite bronze in Thursday’s semi-finals. But as Marshall looks to become World champion once more, after winning in 2012, nothing can deter her from the excitement of qualifying for her second Olympic Games. “I'd like to thank all of my team, my team mates, my coach Tim Coulter, Sky and my family and friends for all of their hard work in supporting and believing in me,” she said. “I am really happy and grateful to be given another chance to compete at the Olympic Games.” Marshall and Adams will be Team GB’s only female boxers in Brazil, joining Galal Yafai, Muhammed Ali, Qais Ashfaq, Joe Cordina, Antony Fowler, Joshua Buatsi, Lawrence Okolie and Joe Joyce in British colours this summer. But first, Adams has one final feat she wants to tick off, winning a World title to make it a clean sweep at the biggest events in the sport. She said: “I have won gold at every major tournament except the World Championships so I want to win this one to complete my collection.”
Sportsbeat 2016