Olympic haul best in 80 years

13 April 2012

Audley Harrison grabbed another gold for Great Britain in the Sydney Olympics by beating Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov in the super-heavyweight division at Darling Harbour.  

The Londoner's victory gave Britain their first double figure golden haul since the 1920 Games in Antwerp, and their first Olympic boxing gold since 1968 when middleweight Chris Finnegan triumphed at the Mexico City Games.

Harrison, who won by the convincing 30-16 margin over the man from Kazakhstan, said: "I said it was my destiny and I proved that I am not just a man that can talk.

"I knew I had him licked when I got in there. I wasn't going to be denied."

There were a few nervous moments for Harrison - before he even arrived at the venue. The Brit, suffering with a swollen left hand, needed a medical check-up this morning but was passed fit.

"It was tough, four fights in a week," Harrison said.

"I've had a little problem with my knuckle, which went on my second fight, but I kept it to myself and didn't tell anyone about it and I showed that I could still pull it out today.

"The staff at the BOC and the people at the British Olympics Association have been great and fixed me up."

Harrison, as in common with his previous bouts, trailed Dildabekov, and was 0-2 behind halfway through the opening round, still looking to land his first telling punch.

And his first reward was a triple one which swept him into a 3-2 lead at the same time forcing to take a standing count.

Harrison was ahead, looking good despite the hand trouble and was ready to punch his way to gold.

The new champion displayed more power in his blows, though sparingly throwing the left, and his work was highlighted by a right uppercut for 7-3 and finished round two 9-4 ahead.

From that point, Harrison was going to be extremely difficult to deny, though Dildabekov cut his lead 9-8 in the third before big Audley opened up, sweeping through from 10-8 to 18-12.

He was only two minutes from glory, and did an ideal job in the final round for his historic 30-16 triumph.

"It was a comprehensive win. I was working well, there were lots of open targets and I knew I was always going to be catching him," Harrison said.

"It's a shame I had the bad hand or I would have taken him out.

"The hand was hurting bad enough that I had to put a jab in it to keep the pain off, all above board of course. It was really bad this morning, the size of an apple.

"Everyone knows that's my power hand, my left cross is my power hand, so it was like going to war with that gun missing. But I showed I was going to go through with it no matter what.

"The win is the most important thing. I'm a very happy man."

"I said it was my destiny and I proved I'm not just a man who can talk, I'm a man who can deliver the goods as well.

"I'm not going to make any plans now I'm just going to enjoy this moment. This is a special moment. This is the Olympic Games.

"Then I'm going to go away, get myself fixed up and you'll be hearing a lot more from Audley Harrison."

How impressive was Harrison's win?

He was given the ultimate seal of approval by world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who acknowledged that overcoming an injury was "the mark of a champion".

Holyfield added: "He did great. He did what was necessary.

"The guy he fought was kind of awkward but he established his long jab, he built the points and a couple of times he had him out.

"Boxing will probably be over in a year for me, but I'm sure his future is great."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in