(BEIJING, August 24) -- China's Zhang Xiaoping won his country's second-ever Olympic Boxing gold medal in the light-heavyweight class by defeating Kenny Egan of Ireland 11-7.

　　The bout between Zhang and Egan was hard-fought and intense from the beginning to the end.

　　The first round saw the two boxers hustling each other and exchanging punches, but Zhang won the round 2-0.

　　The Irish boxer fought back in the next two rounds, with the boxers scoring the same amount of points in rounds, 3-3 and 2-2.

　　Egan was equally aggressive in the last round but Zhang, cheered on by a boisterous home crowd, landed another four stinging point-scoring punches to claim the title.

　　"I'm really excited," said Zhang, "before the Olympic Games, I was just a normal athlete but now I am a gold medalist. I was perfect today and did very well psychologically and physically. Throughout the Games, I fought with 100 per cent of my skills. I put myself in a low position and tried my best to fight against my opponent."

　　China's first boxing gold medal was won by Zou Shiming in the light-flyweight class earlier today.