Close shave for Chinese boxing champ

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — China's two-time world champion Zou Shiming survived a massive scare here Saturday before booking a place in the Olympic quarter-finals in the light-flyweight division.

With a packed partisan home crowd cheering him on, Zou, 27, is attempting to become China's first ever Olympic boxing champion.

But his gold medal aspirations looked shaky against Nordine Oubaali from France, who outfoxed the more aggressive Chinese fighter for most of the bout.

Oubaali led narrowly in a low scoring contest until the last 13 seconds when Zou landed a scoring punch that tipped the vote from the judges his way and earned him a quarter-final spot against Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan.

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