German Manfred Wolke, 1968 Olympic boxing champion, dies at 81

BERLIN, June 3 (dpa/EP) –

Former German boxer Manfred Wolke, Olympic and world champion, died last week at the age of 81 after a long and serious illness, as confirmed by Henry Maske, a boxer whom he trained, this Monday to the ‘dpa’ news agency.

Representing East Germany, Wolke was a welterweight gold medalist at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and after ending his boxing career, he became a trainer, working primarily with heavyweight contenders Axel Schulz and Maske. Wolke helped Maske become Olympic middleweight champion at Seoul ’88 and also led Fink to Olympic featherweight gold at the 1980 Moscow Games.