DeGale wins boxing gold for Britain
Saturday, 23 Aug 2008 21:16
DeGale was delighted with his gold medal
James DeGale has won Britain's first boxing gold medal of the Beijing Olympics after beating Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux 16-14.
The Briton managed to maintain his composure, and his lead, during an ill-tempered and tense final to win the title.
DeGale managed to move ahead 6-1 in the opening round while Bayeaux had two points deducted for biting DeGale in the chest.
He led 10-4 after the second round and was managing to keep Bayeaux at bay despite the toe-to-toe nature of the bout.
The Cuban closed to within two points in the final round but DeGale had done enough and managed to hold on for the win.
Afterwards DeGale said he was delighted to have gone down in the history books.
He told the BBC: "It was not that good, but it was strong," he said. "I just wanted to win. Bayeaux was pretending that I was holding on to him - and then he bit me in the first round.
"He was tough, horrible and strong throughout the bout. But I'm Olympic champion, it's unbelievable."
Elsewhere, Somjit Jongjohor of Thailand beat Andris Laffita Hernandez of Cuba 8-2 to win the flyweight gold medal.
Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko won 9-1 against France's Khedafi Djelkhir to claim featherweight gold and the heavyweight title went to Rakhim Chakhkiev of Russia who beat Italy's Clemente Russo 4-2.