London 2012 Olympics: Adams confident she can win final

NICOLA Adams stands one more win away from realising her 17-year-long dream of hanging an Olympic gold medal around her neck after cruising through her flyweight semi-final against India’s Mary Kom.

The 29-year-old from Leeds boxed superbly amid another raucous ExCeL atmosphere to repel the relentless advances of the smaller Kom 11-6 and book a gold medal match today against China’s world No1 Ren Cancan. Afterwards Adams, who almost gave up the sport four years ago due to funding concerns, 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 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’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 admitted afterwards: “Nicola is a very good fighter. I’m happy to have won a medal, but I thought I should have scored more points.”