London 2012 Olympics: Lennox Lewis inspires Anthony Joshua to boxing final

Anthony Joshua revealed how a piece of advice from Lennox Lewis helped him storm into today’s Olympic super-heavyweight final with Roberto Cammarelle of Italy and guarantee Great Britain’s
boxing team their most successful Games for more than a century.

Not since 1908 have four
British boxers gone through to gold-medal matches but on
Friday night Joshua followed the earlier lead of Fred Evans and Luke Campbell – and Thursday’s historic triumph by Nicola Adams – to dispatch giant Kazakh Ivan Dychko 13-11.

Joshua said: “I saw Lennox when he came to watch Nicola and he told me to back up with the jab. He started throwing jabs and shadow-boxing, which was great. He gave me some advice and I took it with me into this fight.”

Lewis’ hint proved a golden one as it was Joshua’s lightning left hand which made all the difference over three cagey rounds, with the pair locked together through two before the Londoner’s cleaner work in the last saw him home.

Joshua added: “I’m learning in every fight and I just hope I can go out and do this thing on Sunday. 
I can improve on my defence, my confidence and my self-belief. If I can become Olympic champion with so many errors, who knows what the future holds.”

Earlier, Evans had completed his irresistible march into the Olympic welterweight final with a superbly composed performance to see off Ukraine’s reigning world champion and world No.1 Taras Shelestyuk.

The Welshman triumphed 11-10 after a compelling contest in which the 21-year-old, who is the first Welsh boxer to win a medal since flyweight Ralph Evans in Munich in 1972, built an early lead and swatted away the Ukrainian’s inevitable late surge.

Evans joined Campbell in booking a gold medal showdown after the Hull bantamweight saw off Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu to make it into last night’s final, where he beat John Joe Nevin of Ireland to take gold.

Evans said: “I’ve been so long waiting for this moment. It’s what all these years training away from home have been for. It’s been so long that I just want to make it all pay off. I’m loving it, loving every minute. To beat the world champion is unbelievable. Every time I come in here the crowd gets louder and louder. In every round I can hear the crowd chanting my name and that gives me that extra bit of a lift.” In today’s final, Evans will face the Kazakh Serik Sapiyev.

Anthony Ogogo failed to make the weekend finals, losing 16-9 to Brazilian Esquiva Falcao.