England's amateurs come out fighting

MELBOURNE, Mar 25 (Reuters) The strength of English amateur boxing was clear to see as their young fighters took a hat-trick of Commonwealth gold medals on the final day of action at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre today.

Flyweight Don Broadhurst was the pick of the bunch with an astonishingly assured destruction of South Africa's Jackson Chauke in the 51-kilogram division.

''It hasn't sunk in yet to be honest,'' said Broadhurst, who won after opening a 20-point advantage midway through the third of three one-sided rounds.

''It's great to get the ball rolling and we'll have a lot more winners today,'' he told reporters.

Broadhurst's prediction proved correct.

Steve Smith made it two out of two for England's boxers when he scored a slightly less convincing 20-10 victory over Pakistan's Lassi Mehrullah.

He surged into an early lead using a mixture of fluid movement and wily defence before running out of steam in the final round.

''I can't believe it, he was a quality fighter but I had just enough,'' said Smith, whose trainee-accountancy career had to take a backseat during his preparations for Melbourne.

England's third gold came courtesy of a walkover after light welterweight Jamie Cox's opponent, Lesotho's Moses Kopo, could not take to the ring after suffering an ear injury.

Australia's only gold medal hopes in the ring both produced the goods.

Middlweight Jarrod Fletcher dusted himself off after an unscheduled second-round close-up with the canvas to outpoint Canada's Adonis Stevenson in the 75kg middleweight division.

''I walked into a good left hand but that just shook me up and reminded me to box him rather than fight him as he was much bigger than me,'' said Fletcher, who won 34-18.

REUTERS PM RK1415