Kingdom’s Ishaish wins Ukraine Open gold

AMMAN — Olympic boxer Hussein Ishaish has provided a timely reminder with just over a year to go until the Olympic Games that he is still one of the world’s best in the -91kg division.

The 2016 Rio quarter-finalist won gold at the Ukraine Open on Sunday, which followed on from a training camp held in the city of Odessa. Ishaish showed a remarkable consistency with victories over Ukrainians Stalchenko Vitalai and Korta André, before going on to beat Irishman, Kenneth Okonbova, in the quarter-final and another Ukrainian, Lufcinski Dmitry, in the last four.

He received some good fortune in the final after his opponent was unable to fight due to injury, handing gold to Ishaish. The national boxing team is now preparing to participate in the World Championship, which will be hosted in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg from September 7-21.