Harrison moves in on medals

Harrison is close to winning a boxing medal

British boxer Audley Harrison is one fight away from adding to Britain's country's already impressive medal tally in Sydney.

The super-heavyweight faces Ukrainian Oleksii Mazikin in the Olympic quarter-finals on Wednesday, with the prize a guaranteed bronze medal.

But Harrison has his sights set on a gold medal to maximise his earning power when he turns professional after the Games.

Harrison faces Mazikin after a tough fight against Russian Alexeii Lezin, who out-pointed him in the first Olympic qualifier.

Harrison was trailing 6-8 with less than 90 seconds remaining but unleashed a crucial left-cross to snatch stoppage.

Fry is out after losing his first fight

Harrison has not fought the Ukrainian before, but has studied a video of him with his coach, Ian Irwin, who believes that his man has what it takes to win.

"He's as big as Audley, orthodox," Irwin said. "He's steady, one-pace and has three shots to his repertoire, that's the jab, the right hand and the left-hook and varies those to make combinations.

"On paper, he wouldn't look to present the same flair of the Russian, with his elusiveness. But we are taking it very, very seriously.

"He certainly needed that contest against Lezin, it's a while since he boxed. He got off he pace at one stage, but he was quite adamant that he would land that left cross.

Frustrated

"I got a bit frustrated with him. He was allowing him space and time, once the Russian was bouncing up and down he was comfortable, he had to impose changes, put him under pressure and crowd him.

"That's when Lezin gets very uncomfortable, and gets to grabbing, that's what brought the two-point warning."

Mazikin won his last fight easily, beating New Zealand's Angus Shelford 19-5.

He got off he pace at one stage, but he was quite adamant that he would land that left cross.

  Ian Irwin
Coach, Audley Harrison

Britain's other Olympian, Courtney Fry, was eliminated in the opening round.

But Irwin revealed that Fry had a recurrence of a back complaint just before his losing bout against Ghana's Charles Adamu.

"He's had the back problem for some time, We've tried to disguise it, and now we've really got to get to the bottom with an MRI scan.

"Courtney felt a twinge two-thirds of the way through the warm-up, minutes before going in to the ring.

"It could have been on his mind, but I'm not making any excuses. He became very upright and hadn't got the confidence or movement to slip away."