Chinese Zhang Xiaoping beat Ireland's Kenny Egan to win the Olympic light weight (81kg) boxing gold medal at the Olympic Games, the first gold of its kind for the country, on Sunday.

Zhang, a dark horse in the Olympic boxing competition, maintained the leading position through out the match and ended it at 11-7. Zhang and Egan got the same point in the second and third rounds, but Zhang obtained a better start and ending.

It is a breakthrough for China's boxing as none of Chinese heavy weight boxers had won Olympic medals before. Just before Zhang's victory, his team mate "Pirate" Zou Shiming claimed the gold of 48 kg at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"I'm really excited. Before the Olympic Games, I was just a normal athlete but now I am a gold medalist," said Zhang.

"I did perfectly today and did very well psychologically and physically. I fought with 100 per cent of my skills all through the Olympic Games, from beginning to end," he added.

Zhang said he worked really hard for 10 years to achieve the Olympic gold, a medal his coach and the coach's brother failed to win in 1992 and 2004 respectively.

Zhang showed his tattoo of a flying horse on Friday after the hard-won victory against Yerkebulan Shynaliyev from Kazakhstan, the one who knocked him out of the top eight of last year's World Championships. He said "people have been calling me a dark horse, but I will fly higher."

Silver medalist Egan, on his part, said "the score's the score and I still get a medal. The whole Games have been great and a silver is still brilliant."

Egan's coach Bill Walsh commented on the final "you've got to keep working, hunt down every point, which isn't Kenny's game. He needs to get ahead early on."

Zhang came to the sports brigade of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the age of 16. He was brought to the ring by boxing coach Chaolu for his long arms and agile mind.

He exhibited his talent in boxing with a silver medal at the national youth championships in 1999, just one year after he took up the sport.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2008)