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Boxer flees from Greek crowd

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* Gymnastics tension boils over

Athens - Fans threw water bottles in disgust and forced an Egyptian fighter to flee from the ring after a referee ruled a Greek light heavyweight couldn't go on because of cuts.

A large partisan crowd at the Peristeri boxing arena came expecting to cheer Elias Pavlidis to victory, and he was winning the fight 18-12 in the third round when it was stopped because of cuts.

The crowd immediately began booing and throwing water bottles, some half filled, into the ring from upper balcony seats. Egypt's Ahmed Ismail was declared the winner, but left the ring running to get out of the angry crowd.

Pavlidis was trying to become the first Greek ever to win a boxing medal, and would have been guaranteed one had he won the quarter-final fight.

His fight drew the biggest crowd of the boxing competition so far.

Most left immediately after the fight instead of staying around for the final bout of the night.


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