Sofiane Oumiha enters the history of French amateur boxing. At 28, the Toulousain became, on Saturday May 13 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the first Frenchman to become a triple amateur world champion. After his 2017 and 2021 titles, the French boxer once again dominated the under 60 kg category. In the final, he beat Cuban Erislandy Alvarez Borges (22) on points, four judges to one.
𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐐𝐔𝐄! 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐔 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄! What an achievement from Sofiane Oumiha (-60 kg) for her journey… https://t.co/zJ98cAXBuz
“I’m going for the third starhad warned the 2016 Olympic vice-champion in The team. To mark boxing history a little more, even if I’m not obsessed with that. I want to see what I’m worth. »
Before taking over the Cuban in the final, Sofiane Oumiha successively got out of his way the Ghanaian Abdul Omar, the Venezuelan José Carfunjol and the Spaniard José Quiles, all three with a score of five judges to zero. In the semi-finals, Oumiha had eliminated the Russian Vsevolod Shumkov (four judges to one).
Russian and Belarusian athletes were indeed not excluded from these Worlds organized by the International Amateur Boxing Federation (IBA), suspended by the International Olympic Committee since 2019 for numerous failures and chaired by the Russian Umar Kremlev. In response, a dozen countries, including Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Norway, had decided to boycott the event.
In addition to the check for 200,000 dollars promised to the various world champions, Sofiane Oumiha is full of confidence just over a month before the European Games, from June 21 in Krakow (Poland), the first qualifying event for the Games. Paris 2024 Olympics.
Juggling between two categories to aim for Paris 2024
The under 60 kg category no longer exists since the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, “The virtuoso” will have to try to qualify in the under 63.5 kg category. “The – 60 kg, it’s my categoryhe recalls. At – 63.5 kg, I feel good too, but my opponents regain more weight there than me after the weigh-in, even if that of the amateurs takes place the morning of the fight. As I don’t have much trouble doing the – 60 kg, I prefer to box there. »
Sofiane Oumiha must therefore juggle between the two categories to pursue her dream of Olympic gold after her lost final in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2016. Especially since in the Olympic category, France also has Lounes Hamraoui (24 years old). ), European champion in 2022.
Since turning professional in 2022, Sofiane Oumiha has won all three of her fights. A professional career set for now « and standby ». « It’s very complicated, but not impossible, to play pros and amateurs at the same time, even if it’s easier for an amateur to become a pro than a pro to come back as an amateur.”he explained in the columns of The team before the world championships. In Tashkent, he proved that it was indeed possible.