Degale makes a medal look easy by Ian McNeilly Aug 20th 2008

James Degale made it look easy as he beat Kazakhstan's former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Arteyev in today's Olympic middleweight quarter-final 8-3. The 22-year-old from Hammersmith nicked a 1-0 lead in a cagey opener but turned up the heat in the second when he quickly advanced to a 4-1 lead. Degale looked incredibly relaxed considering the occasion and the opposition - Arteyev was the 2004 Olympic champ at welter and also won the Val Barker trophy at those games. A boxer like Degale should never lose a three-point lead, such is his speed, footwork and counter-punching style. So it proved as shortly after Arteyev narrowed the gap to two, a left counter opened it up again to 5-2. Degale didn't run, finishing the round 7-3 in front. He did run in the last, and why not? He still registered the only point and closed the contest out a totally deserved 8-3 winner. In another England v Ireland semi-final (Tony Jeffries takes on Kenny Egan at light-heavy), Degale will face Darren Sutherland, who looked just as impressive as the Englishman, if not more so, in beating last year's World's silver medallist Alfonso Blanco Parra by an astonishing margin of 11-1. Degale v Sutherland takes place at 8.01am BST, Friday morning.

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