British boxer Lewis Richardson has secured his spot at this summer’s Paris Games after beating Puerto Rico’s Angel Llanos Perez on points in the quarter-final of an Olympic qualifying event.
The light-middleweight, 26, had to reach the semi-finals at the World Qualification Tournament in Bangkok to claim a place at Paris 2024.
Richardson was behind with three of the five judges after the first round before firing some smart shots to recover well in the second.
The Colchester fighter cruised through the third to earn victory in his fourth fight in five days in Thailand.
Richardson missed out on qualification for Tokyo 2020 and had to come down from his natural weight after the 75kg category was removed from the Olympic programme.
“It feels unbelievable,” Richardson told GB Boxing. “I’ve got the golden ticket after putting years and years of hard work into it and I’m just really proud of myself for making it happen.
“I have had a lot of setbacks and I’m so thankful for everyone who has contributed along the way.”
Richardson is the sixth GB boxer to qualify for the Games after Charley Davison, Rosie Eccles, Chantelle Reid, Pat Brown and Delicious Orie reached Paris.
However, Amy Broadhurst’s hopes of joining them were ended in her debut tournament for Great Britain after losing on a split decision to South Korea’s Oh Yeon-ji in the 60kg division.
The 27-year-old, who won World, European and Commonwealth Games titles two years ago, switched to Britain in March after not being selected in the Ireland team for the final qualifier.
GB’s flyweight Savannah Stubley and bantamweight Elise Glynn still remain in contention to qualify for the Olympics and fight on Saturday.
