Wyatt Sanford claims bronze for Canada’s first Olympic boxing medal in 28 years

Wyatt Sanford will head home from his second Olympic Games with a bronze medal in hand.

The 25-year-old boxer from Kennetcook, Nova Scotia lost his 63.5kg semifinal against Sofiane Oumiha of France on a split decision, 4-1.

In the first of the three rounds, both boxers came out aggressively. The judges deemed it to be a closely fought first round, but all five gave the edge to Oumiha, 10-9.

The second round was even tighter, as Sanford got the nod from two judges, but Oumiha was still deemed slightly superior by the other three.

In the third round, Sanford was the stronger boxer in the eyes of four of the five judges, but it wasn’t enough to make up the point gap on Oumiha who heads off to the gold medal final.

But that final result does not diminish what Sanford achieved at Paris 2024 where he became Canada’s first Olympic medallist in boxing in 28 years. David Defiagbon had been Canada’s last boxer to stand on an Olympic podium, at Atlanta 1996.