Kansas City Star
There will be at least one local athlete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Boxer Cam F. Awesome of Lenexa punched his ticket on Saturday night in Reno, Nev. Awesome won the 201-pound division at the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team Trials. He beat DeRae Crane by unanimous decision (3-0) and earned a place on the team.
Awesome, who was previously known as Lenroy “Cameron” Thompson, won his second straight Olympic Trials title, according to USA Boxing. He was suspended in 2012 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which said that over an 18-month period he failed three times to meet requirements for his whereabouts so he could be found for out-of-competition drug testing.
“I’m trying not to cry. It’s a long road and a very emotional week. I felt like I held myself together long enough that I can go cry now,” Awesome told USA Boxing. “I’m very confident going into internationals. You just have to qualify in the top three but my goal is to win and try and make a name for myself in the international scene and be ranked going into the Olympics for winning one of those tournaments.
“I was preparing for this tournament to be number one in the world not in the country. I’ve never been in this type of shape. I changed weight classes, my only issue was that I kept losing too much weight. It’s just the beginning but this is where my life picks up from 2012.”
Shade Global 