Jahmal Harvey celebrates winning gold at the AIBA Boxing World Championships on Nov. 6, 2021 in Belgrade, Serbia.
Boxers Jahmal Harvey and Rahim Gonzales claimed their first world titles, and Team USA’s first in 14 years, while Roscoe Hill finished with silver as the Elite Men’s World Championships wrapped up Saturday in Belgrade, Serbia.
Combined with Omari Jones’s silver medal on Friday, the U.S. closed out the world championships with four medals, marking the country’s best finish since 1999, when it won four gold medals. The wins also marked the first for U.S. men at an Olympics or world championships since Rau’shee Warren and Demetrius Andrade won world titles in 2007.
All four U.S. medalists made their world championships debut in Belgrade.
Harvey, who like Jones is just 18, claimed his world title in the 57 kg. division by unanimous decision over Kazakhstan’ Serik Temirzhanov, a 2020 Olympian. The Oxon Hill, Maryland, native got past another Olympian in the semifinals when he beat Samuel Kisohurry of France. He previously scored one of the biggest upsets of the competition when he beat defending world champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Uzbekistan in the second round.
“Feeling good, 2021 world champion, all my hard work paid off,” Harvey said in a video released by USA Boxing.