Fifth Brit reaches boxing semis, French bow out

Britain are on the verge of their best performance in the Olympic boxing ring for 56 years after welterweight Freddie Evans became the fifth host-nation boxer to reach the semi-finals. With a last four place guaranteeing at least a bronze medal, Britain have produced their best boxing performance at an Olympics since the 1956 Melbourne Games when they won five medals including two golds. "It's a dream come true," said the 21-year-old Evans, who faces world champion Taras Shelestyuk in Friday's semi-final, after his count-back win over Canada's Custio Clayton. "I've been watching Olympic boxing ever since I was a child and I've always imagined myself with a medal round my neck. "I think I'm good enough to make it a gold, but I need to up my game for the next fight against the world champion." Britain's boxing team captain Tom Stalker can make it six Brits in the semis if he beats Mongolia's Munkh-Erdene Uranchimeg in Wednesday's light-welterweight quarter-final. Only flyweight Andrew Selby failed in Tuesday's bid to make it six, losing his quarter-final 16-11 to 18-year-old Cuban Robeisy Ramirez. Evans is in the last four along with team-mates bantamweight Luke Campbell, super-heavyweight Anthony Joshua, middleweight Anthony Ogogo and Nicola Adams, who fights India's M.C. Mary Kom in Wednesday's flyweight semi-final. It was a bad night in the ring for France with both flyweight Nordine Oubaali and welterweight Alexis Vastine going out, with the latter left in tears by his 18-all countback defeat to Shelestyuk. Oubaali lost 22-18 to Ireland's Michael Conlan who joins bantamweight John Joe Nevin and lightweight Katie Taylor as the Irish representatives so far into the semi-finals. Earlier, flyweight world champion Misha Aloian won his quarter-final with a lively 23-13 victory over 17-year-old Jeyvier Cintron of Puerto Rico. In Friday's semi-final, the Russian will face Mongolia's Tugstsogt Nyambayar, 20, who earned a 15-10 win over Uzbekistani fifth-seed Jasurbek Latipov, a 2011 world bronze medalist, his second seed en route to the semis. Following his win over Selby, Cuba's Ramirez faces Ireland's Conlan in the other flyweight semi after the Irishman's last eight win over France's Oubaali. "He's a clever boxer, he knew when to hit me at the right time, he was getting me just before I could get my hands up," said Selby in praise of Ramirez. "I could have boxed more and not got so involved on the ropes, it must have looked to the judges that he was picking off more shots than me." In the welterweight quarter-finals, both Shelestyuk and last four opponent Evans needed count-back victories against France's Vastine and Canada's Custio, but both losers appealed the verdicts. Cardiff-based Evans took a commanding 7-2 first round lead over Custio Clayton only for the Canadian to win the next two rounds, but the Welshman was given the nod on count-back after the bout finished 14-all. It was the end of the road for the USA's medal hopes as Errol Spence, who only made the quarter-finals on appeal, was beaten 16-11 by Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy, who faces Kazakhstan's Serik Sapiyev in Friday's semi-final. Sapiyev, who won a silver at last year's world championships, had few problems in his 20-9 win over Venezuela's Gabriel Maestre.