Adams on brink of realising boxing dream
Nicola Adams stands one more win away from realising her 17-year-old dream of hanging an Olympic boxing gold medal around her neck after cruising through her flyweight semi-final against India's Mary Kom.
The Leeds 29-year-old boxed superbly amid another raucous ExCeL atmosphere to repel the relentless advances of the smaller Kom 11-6 and book a Thursday gold medal match against China's world number one Ren Cancan.
Afterwards Adams insisted she had no fear of returning to the ring against the Chinese fighter, to whom she has lost in each of the last two world finals.
Adams, who also holds a one-point win over Ren from the Strandja Cup in February this year, said: "I've been training for this moment since I was 12 years old and to think it is finally here is just incredible.
"I am going to treat it like a normal tournament, and hopefully the crowd will give me a boost to edge away and get the gold. I've beaten her once before and I'm definitely confident I can go out and do it again."
It was testament to Adams' quality that she made a bout against the ferocious Kom look relatively easy. Kom is a five-time world champion but had to step up two weights to reach the Games, and the size difference was the key.
Kom's assaults were smothered by the clever, elusive Adams, who used her reach to good effect, landing single left and right counters to take a two-point lead at the end of the first round and extend it by a further point at half-way.
A left in round three wobbled Kom, who continued to move forward bravely until the final bell and conceded afterwards: "Nicola is a very good fighter. I'm happy to have won a medal, but I thought I should have scored more points today."
Meanwhile, Katie Taylor brought the house down once again as Ireland's boxing heroine charged into the Olympic lightweight final with a 17-9 win over Tajikistan's Mavzuna Chorieva at a raucous ExCeL.
Roared every second by another mighty Irish contingent inside the 10,000 capacity venue, Taylor finished strongly to put the result beyond doubt and set up a Thursday Olympic final against Russia's Sofya Ochigava.
