GB's boxers win five gold medals at Olympic boxing test event in London

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Savannah Marshall of Great Britain
Image caption,

Marshall won silver at the 2010 World Championships in Barbados

British boxers won five gold medals and one bronze at the Olympic test event at London's ExCel Centre on Sunday.

Natasha Jonas and Savannah Marshall won gold in the women's middleweight and lightweight categories respectively.

Jonas defeated China's world number two, Dong Cheng, 16-10 in her final and Marshall beat Kazakhstan's Dariga Shakimova 13-10.

In the men's action, England's Martin Ward, Sean McGoldrick from Wales and Scotland's Josh Taylor each took gold.

Lightweight Ward showed his class with a 10-5 victory over Eugen Burhard of Germany, while bantamweight McGoldrick secured another gold medal to go with that he won at the 2010 Commonwealth Games by beating Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand 14-10.

Scotland's Josh Taylor defeated Anthony Yigit of Sweden 13-10 and GB's six-medal haul was completed by Wales' Fred Evans, who won bronze in the welterweight category.

In the earlier session, Jonas started nervously but fought back from 5-3 down in the first round.

"It is massive for me to have beaten the world number two," Jonas told GB Boxing's website., external

"It is always good to get a win, but especially against somebody like Dong Cheng. She is just so awkward and tall and she knows how to use that to her advantage. It is the biggest victory of my career."

Marshall admitted she had to overcome nerves before winning her bout, saying: "I can't really remember most of it. I couldn't wait for it, I just kept thinking, 'in 20 minutes time it's all going to be over and hopefully I will win this gold medal'."

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