Mercy dash to Norfolk for Olympic boxer

Anthony Ogogo made a flying visit back to his native Norfolk to visit his mother Teresa, who is recovering from a brain haemorrhage, and greet an imminent addition to the family after dispatching Junior Castillo in the Olympic boxing tournament.

Ogogo could have been forgiven for treating the London Games as an irrelevant sideshow given the the family turmoil back home, with his mother taken seriously ill six weeks ago and his eldest sister Leanne going into labour on Saturday with her second child.

Instead, Ogogo said his mother's fight inspired him to produce a strong and focused performance against his opponent from the Dominican Republic, easing away to score a 13-6 victory and earn a place in the last 16 of the middleweight competition.

Ogogo said: "They are in the same hospital [in Gorleston]. My sister is just down the corridor so she can take the baby to show my mum. I am going to make a run back to Norfolk and hopefully I will have a new niece or nephew waiting for me."

If Ogogo's preparations for the Games have been less than ideal, there was little evidence in the way the Lowestoft fighter performed in his opening bout, improving on a nervous first round to pull away and ultimately score a convincing win.

Castillo, a strong 26-year-old southpaw, had given Ogogo some pause for thought in the opening exchanges, but a big second by Ogogo, in which he connected with a sharp combination just before the bell, put him well in control.

Having been roared to the ring by a capacity crowd in an atmospheric boxing arena, Ogogo, who milked the cheers before the final round, added: "It was better than I dreamed it was going to be. It picked me up and brought the best out of me."

Ogogo's next bout is against the reigning world champion and world number one Ievgen Khytrov of the Ukraine, but the prospect of such a daunting task on Thursday afternoon does not faze the 23-year-old in the slightest.

"The draw was unkind to me but it doesn't matter compared to everything that has happened,"

Ogogo added. "Me and my mum are both working hard. Hopefully I am going to get what I feel I deserve."

Ogogo's team-mates Fred Evans and Josh Taylor are in action on Sunday. Evans faces Ilyas Abbadi of Algeria before Taylor faces a tough lightweight opener against Brazilian Robson Conceicao in the first bout of the evening session.