The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ bid to have a boxer qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August was thwarted after Rashield Williams suffered a second round loss at the 2016 World Qualifying Event in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Williams, the only member of the six-man team to advance out of the first round, lost his men’s light welterweight division or 64 kilogram class 3-0 to Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov of Tajikistan.

Two of the three judges scored it 30-26 and the other had it 29-27 in favour of Rakhimov.

Williams won his opening match on Sunday, 3-0 over Miguel Ferrin from Ecuador, but needed to win his next two matches in order to secure his berth in Rio.

He joins the other five members of the team who got eliminated last week.

Efforts to contact Williams or the coaching staff that include Valentino Williams, Ronn Rodgers and Godfrey Strachan proved fruitless up to press time.

On Saturday, heavyweight (91kg) Davon Hamilton became the fifth boxer to get eliminated after he lost 3-0 to Croatia’s Josip-Bepo Filipi as all three judges scored it 30-25.

On Friday, three boxers were ousted.

Carl Hield lost his men’s middleweight (75kg) bout 3-0 loss to Spain’s Damian Biacho Bolequia with the judges all scoring it 29-28; light heavyweight (81 kg) Israel Johnson went down 3-0 to Heegeun Yang from Korea with the judges all scoring it 30-27 and super heavyweight Kieshno Major lost 3-0 to Konstantin Li from Kyrgyzstan as the three judges scored it 29-28.

On Thursday, Rudolph Regis was the first boxer eliminated after he lost 3-0 to Chu-En Lai from Chinese Taipei in the men’s lightweight (60kg) as two judges scored it 30-24 and the other scored it 30-25.

The boxers were hoping to join the athletes, who have already qualified from track and field and the swimmers. Emily Morley has also been invited to compete in rowing. It was hoped that the boxers would have represention, but they all fell short in the final qualifier.