Lozano assured of first boxing medal

Spain's Rafael Lozano became the first competitor to claim a boxing medal - although what colour it will be is yet to be decided.

Lozano reached the semi-finals of the light-flyweight division with a narrow 11-10 victory over Kenyan Wanjau Bilali and is now assured of at least a bronze medal.

Lozano led 10-7 going into the final round and withstood the Kenyan policeman's big finish in the fourth round to hang on to victory by a point.

The diminutive 30-year-old won a bronze medal in Atlanta four years ago but will hope to do better this time around.

Lozano, who is the smallest fighter in the Olympics, will fight North Korea's Kim Un-choi in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Kim downed Lithuania's Ivan Stapovic 22-10 in the other quarter-final.

Police escorted a Lithuanian team official from the media section after he stood at the back making hand signals to relay the running scores to his country's corner.

Bantamweight division

Australian bantamweight Justin Kane was outclassed after 28 seconds of the fourth round by Serguey Daniltchenko.

The Ukrainian was 20-3 ahead on points and will fight Russian Raimkoul Malakhbekov, the 1995 and 1997 world champion, for a place in the final.

Malakhbekov, a bronze medallist in 1996, beat Alisher Rahimov of Uzbekistan 16-10.

In the lightweight division, stylish Cuban Mario Kindelan, the hot gold medal favourite and world champion, overpowered Greece's Tigkran Ouzlian.

Ouzlian had a cut under his right eye inspected by the ringside doctor after the first round as he trailed 10-2. The fight was stopped 10 seconds from the end of the fourth round after Kindelan led 24-9.

The Cuban's semi-final opponent will be Russian Alexandr Maletin, who outclassed Turkey's Georgian-born Selim Palyani.

Palyani, whose featherweight brother Ramazan has yet to fight his quarter-final, was given a standing eight count at the end of third round and was stopped 16 seconds into the fourth with the score 21-6 to Maletin.