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Egan: light-heavyweight silver
The whole games have been great and a silver is still brilliant.
Kenny Egan
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Kenny Egan had to settle for silver after losing 11-7 to Xiaoping Zhang in the final of the light-heavyweight division at the Beijing Olympics.
The Irishman, who ended the challenge of Britain's Tony Jeffries in the semi-final, was always chasing the contest after home favourite Zhang opened a two-point lead in the first round.
He was never able to get back on terms, staying two points adrift heading into the final round.
Egan went on the attack during the last two minutes and, as a consequence, left himself open for Zhang to extend his winning margin to four points.
The veteran southpaw insisted he was not worried by the way the bout was scored, but admitted it had been hard to adjust to the different points awarded throughout the Games.
Brilliant
"The score's the score and I still get a medal," he said. "The whole games have been great and a silver is still brilliant.
"Over the past two weeks I don't think anyone's appreciated how hard it's been. Shoulder slaps get scored. All I could do was get in there and box."
Coach Billy Walsh added: "You've got to keep working, hunt down every point, which isn't Kenny's game. He needs to get ahead early on."
In Sunday's other boxing finals, China's light-flyweight sensation Zou Shiming beat Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia for his the hosts' maiden boxing gold, a tally that was later doubled by Zhang.
Purevdroj's team-mate Badar-Uugan Enkhbat won the bantamweight final by a 16-5 margin over Cuba's Yankiel Leon Alarcon.
Alexey Tishchenko edged out Frenchman Daouda Sow 11-9 to secure lightweight glory for Russia.
Kazakhstan's Bakhyt Sarsekbayev stood on the top step of the podium in the welterweight division after a 18-9 success over Carlos Banteaux Suarez of Cuba.
And Italy's Roberto Cammarelle stopped Zhang Zhilei of China in the fourth round to take super-heavyweight honours.
