LONDON - Custio Clayton moved to within one win of claiming Canada's first boxing medal in 16 years on Friday but has impressive Briton Freddie Evans in his way after the Welshman maintained the hosts' early momentum.
In two strikingly similar welterweight bouts, Clayton and Evans were level with their second-round opponents going into the final round before streaking away, with Evans all but ending his within a minute after a flurry of early third-round shots.
The 21-year-old, the youngest of Britain's seven male fighters, made it seven wins from eight for the team in front of another noisy, packed house that Clayton, waving furiously as he left the ring, also seemed to enjoy.
"I'm just waving to everybody, I'm just happy for all the support everyone's giving all the boxers," Clayton told reporters when asked who he was acknowledging in the crowd.
"It's fun. This is the best place to be right now."
Canada last won a medal, a silver, at the 1996 Atlanta Games eight years after Lennox Lewis, a dual citizen who went on to win multiple world professional heavyweight titles for Britain, won its last gold.
Both losing semi-finalists get bronze in Olympic boxing.
Clayton, who surprised Mexican Oscar Molina Casillas in Sunday's first round, stayed patient through a cagey opening two rounds with Cameron Hammond but used his quick feet and jab to counter the Australian's longer reach to take the contest 14-11.
Evans had the tougher fight on paper against fourth-seeded Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who knocked him out on the way to winning bronze at last year's world amateur championship.
