Egan too good for Jeffries

Ireland's Kenny Egan won Friday's second Anglo-Irish contest against Tony Jeffries to earn a place in the light-heavyweight final.

Egan - who has been to four world championships but had never before fought at an Olympics - is assured of at least a silver medal after beating Jeffries 10-3.

He will fight China's Zhang Xiaoping in the final after the home favourite beat Yerkebulan Shynaliyev of Kazakhstan in the other light-heavyweight semi-final.

While Egan will fight for Olympic gold on Sunday night, Jeffries was left with bronze.

He said: "Before I came here I would have been happy to get a medal but now I feel absolutely gutted.

Brilliant

"I felt brilliant in the warm-up but on the day he boxed brilliantly. I don't think I boxed that badly but he upped his game. Kenny was the better fighter on the night and he beat me fair and square."

Dubliner Egan is just the fourth Irishman to reach an Olympic boxing final.

Earlier on Friday, Ireland's Darren Sutherland lost to James Degale of Great Britain 10-3 in the middleweight semi-finals.

David Price will also have to settle for Olympic bronze after being stopped with 50 seconds remaining in the second round of his bout with Italian Roberto Cammarelle.

Price never got into the contest and was consistently caught by the world champion's right hand which helped him establish a 9-0 lead by the time of the stoppage.

Caught cold

The referee intervered to wave the contest off when a right left Price sitting in the ropes and clearly unable to continue.

A disappointed Price said: "I feel like all the good work I've put in here has just gone down the pan. He caught me cold in the first round and he surprised me. The best man won on the night.

"No-one can take my medal away from me and it's been a fantastic journey up until today. I'll sit down and have a think about what to do next.

"I might return in 2012 - but it might be in synchronised swimming after that."