FRED Evans can count himself lucky to have reached the boxing semi-finals – on two fronts.

The Newport welterweight had the look of a gold medalist in his first contest when beating tough Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas at the ExCel Arena. And it was all going pretty swimmingly in the first round of his quarter-final bout with Canadian Custio Clayton as the St Josephs Boxing Club fighter romped to a 7-2 points lead.

But, for some reason, he dropped off for the next two rounds and allowed Clayton back into the contest. It ended all square at 14-14 but 21-year-old Evans was awarded the verdict on countback, guaranteeing a bronze which gives Wales a first Olympic boxing medal in 40 years.

That, though, was not quite the end of it. The decision was thrown into doubt when the Canadian corner lodged an appeal to the adjudicators, claiming Evans should have been penalised several times during the contest.

The jury sat to hear the appeal long after the final bell had sounded. Around 1.30am, the verdict was upheld and Evans is now in the semi-finals where he will face world number one Taras Shelestyuk, of Ukraine.

  • The Royals have been to the Olympic Park in force since the start.

Three of them – Wills, Harry and Princess Anne – watched Sir Chris Hoy’s historic cycling victory on Tuesday when he became the most decorated British Olympian ever.

But Kate was missing. She has become a big fan of a real British minority sport and is often over at the Copper Box to watch handball. Maybe, with Royal patronage, this fast, furious and physical sport, which is massive everywhere else around Europe, can take off in Britain.

  • And finally. Best moment of the athletics as far as celebrations go were on Tuesday night from German discus gold medalist Robert Harting.

On his lap of honour, his delight at winning exploded with him ripping his shirt off Superman-style on his mad charge around the track – but it didn’t end there.

The women’s 100m hurdles semis were about to take place but bare-chested Harting was game for another laugh. He did an impromptu solo sprint down the home straight, crashing through the barriers in celebration.

Hilarious!