Irishman Eagan settles for silver after defeat to Zhang
Sunday, 24 Aug 2008 11:35
Eagan was dined the gold medal by Zhang of China
Irish light-heavyweight fighter Kenny Eagan had to settle for a silver medal after losing his final to Zhang Xiaoping of China in Beijing.
Eagan beat Britain's Tony Jefferies to reach the final but could not find the answer to Zhang's counter-punching style.
Zhang built an early lead but Eagan only trailed by two points heading into the final round. However he could not close the gap an eventually lost 11-7.
Although Eagan was disappointed to lose he was satisfied to have come away from the competition with a medal.
He told the BBC: "He did his best and it was obviously better than mine - a silver medal is better than nothing I suppose."
Earlier in the bantamweight final Badar-Uugan Enkhbat won Mongolia's first ever boxing gold medal with a 16-5 win over Yankiel Leon Alarcon of Cuba.
In the super-heavyweight division Italian world champion Roberto Cammarelle, who beat Britain's David Price in the semi-finals, won the gold medal with a fourth round knock out of China's Zhang Zhilei.
Zhang took many blows to the head during the bout but it was a left hook from Cammarelle midway through the final round that caused the referee to end the match.
In the welterweight class Kazakhstan's Bakhyt Sarsekbayev easily beat Cuba's Carlos Banteaux Suarez 18-9, while Russia's Alexey Tishchenko defeated Daouda Sow of France 11-9 in the lightweight division.
China claimed their second gold medal of today's boxing when Mongolia's Serdamba Purevdorj was forced to retire in his bout against Shiming Zou, handling Shiming the title.