Joshua leads Brit pack into boxing semis

Super heavyweight Anthony Joshua became the fourth British boxer to reach the Olympic boxing semi-finals and said the hunger for medals in London is driving on the home team. The 22-year-old Joshua, who only took up boxing four years ago, faces Kazakhstan\'s Ivan Dychko in Friday\'s semi-final as he joins middleweight Anthony Ogogo, bantamweight Luke Campbell and flyweight Nicola Adams in the last four. Welterweight Fred Evans and flyweight Andrew Selby, who both have quarter-finals on Tuesday, plus lightwelter Tom Stalker who fights Wednesday, are also bidding to reach the semi-finals in their divisions. \"I don\'t want to get too head-over-heels until it\'s done, it\'s a tough game in there and anything can happen,\" said Joshua on Monday, after putting China\'s Zhang Zhilei on the canvas in the second during his 15-11 quarter-final win. \"Everyone is hungry, everyone wants to do well,\" said Joshua, who is already guaranteed a bronze medal. \"I\'ll be out again to hopefully change that colour to hopefully get a gold medal. Favourite Magomedrasul Medzhidov, who beat Joshua to the world title in Baku last year, has reached the other semi-final and the Azerbaijani will face Italy\'s Roberto Cammarelle. Earlier, Ogogo, who beat world champion Ievgen Khytrov in the previous round, set up a middleweight semi-final against Brazil\'s Esquiva Falcao after his 15-10 last-eight win over Germany\'s Stefan Hartel. In the other middleweight semi on Friday, Uzbekistan\'s Abbos Atoev faces Japan\'s Ryota Murata after Atoev\'s 17-13 victory over India\'s Vijender Singh, who failed in his bid to claim a second straight Olympic bronze. Murata is aiming to end his country\'s 48-year wait for a gold in the ring having become the first Japanese boxer since the 1968 Mexico Olympics to win a medal with a 17-13 win over Turkey\'s Adem Kilicci. In the lightweight category, world champion Vasyl Lomachenko, the Ukrainian featherweight gold medal winner at Beijing 2008, booked his semi-final berth with a 14-9 win over Puerto Rico\'s Felix Sanchez. In Friday\'s other semi-final, Lomachenko will fight Cuba\'s Yasnier Toledo in a rematch of last year\'s world championships lightweight final after the Cuban\'s comfortable 19-11 win over Kazakhstan\'s Gani Zhailauov. \"He\'s a dangerous rival, with good speed. He\'s fiery, but I\'ve studied him a lot and I know that I can win,\" said Toledo. Rising 20-year-old Lithuanian star Evaldas Petrauskas pulled off the first upset of the night with a 16-14 lightweight win over 2009 world champion Domenico Valentino of Italy. \"My hero is Mike Tyson and I hope one day to be as powerful as he was,\" said Petrauskas, the 2010 Youth Olympic champion. \"Since I started boxing at seven this has been my dream and I am pretty sure the whole of Lithuania is cheering for me.\" With Petrauskas is something of an unknown quantity, his semi-final opponent Han Soon-Chul of South Korea admitted he would have preferred to face Valentino after his 16-13 quarter-final win over Uzbekistan\'s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov.