ANDY Morris is just one fight from a guaranteed medal after winning his second bout in 24 hours.

The 19-year-old will compete in Tuesday night's quarter finals boosted by a thrilling win over Nigerian Saheed Salawu.

Morris, watched by all his family and as many friends as possible, dominated what many ringside experts regarded as the tournament's "lightweight final".

The 19-year-old spent the first round getting to grips with the snaking left jab of Ramanand Ramanand of India and trailed 3-1 when he returned to his corner.

But the ABA champion found his range in the second and a clever mixture of left hooks and straight rights through Ramanand's guard propelled him into an 8-5 lead. There was more of the same in the third as he stretched his advantage to 17-11.

Back-pedalling

Morris had Ramanand back pedalling with a booming left hook to the head early in the fourth and final round and followed up with another three identical shots to force the only standing count.

The final score of 29-16 meant Morris had been just two points away from stopping the former Asian champion under the 15 point outclassed rule.

Morris said: "I watched a tape of his first fight and knew he was good on his feet and had fast hands and that I had to slow him down and work on my body shots.

"The plan was to stay on him and push him back and it worked perfectly. It would have been nice to have ended it early but I've trained for five hard fights.

"The pressure of boxing in front of my home crowd isn't bothering me at all - they follow me all over anyway, but the dream is getting closer to reality now and I think that I fought for the gold medal 12 times in my sleep last night!''

England coach Ian Irwin said: "Ramanand's an outstanding boxer with a very good record in world class tournaments and Andy's win will be a real boost for the rest of the team.''

Ashton-under-Lyne's Steven Bell, the team captain, will be the last of the 12-strong England squad to box in his bout when he faces Trinidad's Devon Jones on Monday night.

West Ham flyweight Matthew Marsh, 19, became the first English loser, after eight successive wins, when he was knocked out by South African Nzimeni Msutu in the second round.

Marsh was out cold for several minutes and was taken to Hope hospital where he had a head scan.