Ogogo inspired by gold medalist Farah (From Daily Echo)

Ogogo inspired by gold medalist Farah

11:22pm Monday 6th August 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Boxer Anthony Ogogo admitted shedding tears over Mo Farah's epic 10,000 metres triumph on Saturday night and said the exploits of his fellow Great Britain Olympians inspired him to guarantee a medal of his own at ExCeL.

He saw off Germany's tough Stefan Hartel 15-10 to set up a semi-final showdown against the excellent Brazilian Esquiva Falcao, who beat the Lowestoft man 17-12 in the last 16 of last year's World Championships.

Ogogo said: "I watched Mo Farah the other night and I'm a big tough boxer but I'm not scared of saying I had a tear in my eye. Seeing Mo and Jess Ennis do well inspired me and hopefully I will have inspired another athlete to do well."

Ogogo admitted he deserved a "slap on the wrist" for taking a handful of right hands in the course of his rugged win, in which he carved out a 5-2 advantage after one round and extended it by a further point at the half-way stage.

Roared on by another capacity crowd, Ogogo succeeded in largely repelling the German's advances in the third and final round, tying him up in clinches as Hartel bulled forward swinging shots, then unloading a pair of big right hands of his own in the final moments.

Compatriot Anthony Joshua served up a powerful performance to dispatch China's Beijing silver medallist Zhang Zhilei and become the fourth Great Britain fighter to guarantee a place on the podium with a 15-11 points win.

For such an inexperienced top-level fighter, Joshua stayed admirably composed, and as the Chinese fighter started to open up with right hands, the Londoner seized his chance to dump Zhang to the canvas with a sweeping right hand in the second round before holding on for victory on points.

Joshua said: "My medal represents the hard work and the journey, but it's going to get tougher and I've just got to keep my head on my shoulders and try to change the colour of that medal.

"I learned so much from my first bout and I learned so much from this one too. I'm going to go away from these Olympics a new man because the experience is unbelievable - it's character-building.

"I'm not miles better than I was when I went to the World Championships, but I have improved. It's going to be a long career and I'll never stop improving until I finish, but I'm getting better bit by bit because of the experience."