At the first blow the Belgian Victor Schelstraete managed to connect, Emmanuel Reyes Plan He replied with a half smile. A good right hook was not going to take him out of the fight. It was not going to take away the initiative that he had seized with full hands.
Reyes Pla faced the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the thorn still stuck from Tokyo 2020. Three years ago, at the Kokugikan Arena, ‘The Prophet’ fell in the quarterfinals against the big favorite, the Cuban Julius Caesar the Crosswhen I already felt the medal close.
It was harder to take that blow than the first one from the Belgian Victor Schelstraetea timid response to the dominance that Reyes Pla imposed from the start, and which the judges ratified at the first ring of the bell: first round unanimously.
The image of the two corners served to take the pulse of the fight: ‘The Prophet’, assertive, stringing together sentences with the same ease with which he had linked punches; Schelstraete, with his eyes closed and breathing deeply.
Back in the ring, as the Belgian’s pace became increasingly heavy, Reyes Pla’s feet did not lose their grip. Taking the initiative, looking for more openings, putting the finishing touches to a victory that had been waiting for too long.
Three years for him, since that defeat against La Cruz in this same qualifying round; and 24 for Spanish boxing, which had not won an Olympic medal since the silver medal of the current Spanish coach, Rafael Lozanoin Sydney 2000.
It remains to be seen which metal. Enmanuel Reyes Pla’s next opponent will come from the duel between the Kazakh Aibek Oralbay and the Azerbaijani of Cuban origin Loren Alfonso.
