Yafai followed his older brothers Kal and Gamal onto the GB Boxing programme and in Rio he became the family's second Olympian, losing to Cuba's eventual bronze medallist Joahnys Argilagos in his second fight.
He booked his place in theprior to the suspension of the qualifying process in March 2020, alongside British boxer Peter McGrail.
Yafai came into his own in Tokyo, negotiating a tough route to the gold medal match, starting with a convincing stoppage win over Koryun Soghomonyan of Armenia in his preliminary bout.Olympic champion!!! I’m lost for words!!! Olympic champion!!!! Olympic champion!!!!A tight win over Zambian Patrick Chinyemba provided a timely opportunity to refocus, and Yafai reaped the benefit in his following bout when he beat Cuba's former world champion Yosbany Veitia.
A medal duly guaranteed, Yafai went one better with a thrilling performance in his semi-final against Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov. In Paalam, however, he faced an opponent with arguably an even more impressive path than his own, including a split decision win over Ireland's Brendan Irvine, plus a split decision victory over reigning Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in a quarter-final bout that was abridged due to injuries.
He refused to go down without a fight, landing a left-hand in the dying seconds of the contest, but it was not enough to deny Yafai the victory.
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