The Russian squad garnered the most gold and silver in the finals of the weeklong World Amateur Boxing Championships on Saturday at Bangkok's Nimibutr Gymnasium.

　　Also shining were Cuban boxers, with three of the four who made it through to the finals grabbing top honors.

　　Two golds went to Kazakh pugilists.

　　Serguei Kazakov of Russia defeated China's Zou Shiming, 23-19, in the light flyweight category, but Zou made history by becoming his country's first boxer to advance so far in the world championships. He had upset defending champion Yan Barthelmy Varela of Cuba last Wednesday.

　　"The fight was difficult," Zou said after the bout. "My opponent was young and his skills were that of a professional. But I was confident I would win because I trained very hard."

　　"I'm confident he (Zou) will win something in the next Olympics," said Zou's coach Yue Yan. "I was very happy with his performance. The Chinese fans are very excited."

　　Two Thai boxers pushed through to the finals, but only flyweight Somjitr Jongjohor attained the gold, beating Jerome Thomas of France, 24-17.

　　In addition to besting Zou, the Russian juggernaut also saw light heavyweight Evgueni Makarenko defeat Magomed Azipgadzhiev of Belarus, 29-11, and super heavyweight Aleksandr Povetkin beat Cuba's Pedro Carrion Sago, 29-27.

　　Settling for silver among the Russians were bantamweight Gennadi Kovalev, who was beaten 8-17 by Aghasi Mamedov of Azerbaijan; light welterweight Alexandre Maletin, who lost to Willy Blain of France, 13-32; and heavyweight Alexandre Alexseev, who went down to Cuba's Odlanier Solis Fonte, 15-18.

　　Cuba's squad suffered several unexpected losses during the tournament, but in addition to Solis' victory, salvaged its pride with gold medal performances by lightweight Mario Kindelan Mesa, who beat Thailand's Pichai Sayotha, 45-27, and welterweight Lorenzo Aragon Armenteros, who defeated Sherzod Husanov of Uzbekistan, 17-9.

　　Kazakhstan's two gold medal winners were featherweight Galib Jaffarov, who bested Vitali Tajbert of Germany, 43-35, and middleweight Gennadi Golovkin, who beat Ukraine's Oleg Mashkin in the second round when the referee stopped the contest because of a sharp cut under Mashkin's left eye.