Nicola Adams Retains Olympic Women’s Boxing Title

For Adams her victory marked the culmination of a gruelling four-year journey, in which injuries and the difficulties of juggling the celebrity status she earned after London 2012 often threatened to derail her hopes of making more history.

Ourahmoune, who won bronze at this year’s World Championships, battled back to take the third and also produced a spirited performance in the final round.

Again, Adams was awarded the round by all of the judges – and she appeared well on her way to a second successive gold medal.

“The gold rush continues”, she told the BBC.

Fighting out of the red corner, the Briton was clearly ahead in a brisk first round and used her longer reach to good effect in the second. “I’ve created history and I’m now the most accomplished amateur boxer we’ve had of all time, so it’s a nice title to have”.

The 33-year-old from Leeds unanimously outpointed Sarah Ourahmoune of France to claim flyweight gold and emulate Harry Mallin, who won back-to-back gold medals in 1920 and 1924.

“It feels absolutely incredible”.

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Ourahmoune, the older fighter at 34 but three inches shorter at 5ft 2in, looked exhausted and at times resorted to holding Adams to catch a breather.

She would not commit to any plans for the future in the afterglow of her winning her second gold medal but, at 33, the four-year stretch ahead to Tokyo seems a long and hard journey and, as she said, “this is a tough process”.

Pointing out that Yorkshire has been a hotspot for producing many British Olympic winners, including brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee who are taking home gold and silver from the Olympic triathlon, Mrs Adams said: “I can say I am one of the proudest mothers in Yorkshire – just look at the Brownlees they have done so well”. But the world champion would not be drawn on whether she might be tempted to try for a third in Tokyo in 2020, even if her age would surely be against her. She’s a quick counter puncher but I took my chances. “I’m going to have to sit down and relax and see what happens”.