U.S. boxing team loses bantamweight

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. boxer Gary Russell Jr. collapsed in Beijing while trying to make his 119-pound weight limit and is out of the 2008 Olympics.

Russell, a two-time national bantamweight champion, was considered a top U.S. contender for a medal. His coach told The New York Times Russell was trying to lose a "few pounds" to get under the weight limit when he collapsed at the Olympic Village. Paramedics reported the boxer had fainted and was in an extremely dehydrated state.

He wasn't cleared by medical personnel in time to make a weigh-in ahead of the start of the Olympics boxing matches on Saturday.

U.S. boxing team Coach Dan Campbell told the Times, "We thought he was a very good shot at a medal, and we tried to tell the team, when we have these kinds of adversities, we still have eight guys in there, and we're concentrating on those eight guys."

The remaining American boxers at the Olympics are: Sadam Ali (lightweight), Demetrius Andrade (welterweight), Shawn Estrada (middleweight), Javier Molina (light welterweight), Rau'Shee Warren (flyweight), Deontay Wilder (heavyweight), Raynell Williams (featherweight) and Luis Yanez (light flyweight).