Taylor delights ExCeL crowds

The Irish fighter proved too strong for Chorieva, the former world bronze medallist, opening a three-point gap at the end of round one and extending it throughout with a mixture of accurate aggression and back-foot counters.

Roared on every second by another strong Irish contingent inside the 10,000 capacity venue, Taylor finished strongly to put the result beyond doubt and set up an Olympic Games final against Russia's Sofya Ochigava, who advanced from her semi-final against Brazil's Adriana Araujo.

Afterwards, Taylor revealed she expected to sleep for only two hours prior to the final and wished she could have another day of rest before a career already highlighted by four world titles is topped by its crowning moment.

Taylor said: 'It's amazing to box for the gold medal tomorrow. I wouldn't mind the day off, but that's just because I'm lazy. I have trouble getting sleep before a big fight but I'll still manage to get a couple of hours in.

'The support has been incredible. Hopefully there will be a lot of young girls sitting at home watching this, and they will realise that this is something they can work towards. It is amazing for women's boxing.'

Despite the USA men going home without a medal for the first time in Olympic Games history, their women's team have a chance at gold after 17-year-old Claressa Shields overpowered Kazakh Marina Volnova 29-15.

Shields will face powerful Russian Nadezda Torlopova in the final on Thursday after Torlopova, a former world champion at Super Heavy Weight, came through 12-10 in a close fight with Li Jinzi of China.

Meanwhile, Great Britain's Nicola Adams will fight rival Ren Cancan of China for the women's Fly Weight gold after getting the better of five-time world champion Mary Kom in their semi-final.

The Briton's major reach advantage helped her score with a couple of left jabs, but Kom made light of the size discrepancy by landing a right hand of her own as Adams took the opening round 3-1.

Adams continued to box smartly in the second, two big right uppercuts helping her stretch her lead by a further point to 5-2 at the halfway stage, and wobbled Kom with a left in the third as the Indian was forced to be less cautious.

Adams took an 8-4 lead into the last round, and Kom admirably kept searching for a way through until the closing moments, but Adams was too clever to let her big chance slip and saw the fight out for a comprehensive 11-6 win.

Ren made it through following her victory over Marlen Esparza of the USA, who was guaranteed a bronze medal - along with all the other semi-final losers.