American woman to box for gold medal

American Claressa Shields reached the Olympic gold medal bout Wednesday with a semifinal victory in women's middleweight boxing. Shields gave herself a chance to become the only American boxer, man or woman, to come away from the London Olympics with a championship. She defeated Marina Volnova of Kazakhstan with a 29-15 decision, setting up a meeting with Nadezda Torlopova of Russia for the gold medal on Thursday.Torlopova was a 12-10 winner over Li Jinzi of China in the other semifinal. This is the first time women have boxed at the Olympics and they are taking part in three weight classes. The only other American to have survived to this point in the boxing tournament, flyweight Marlen Esparza, lost 10-8 in the semifinals Wednesday to top-seeded Ren Cancan of China. Esparaza, like all other losers of semifinal bouts will receive a bronze medal. In the other flyweight semifinal Nicola Adams of Britain won an 11-6 decision over Chungnejang Mery Kom Hmangte of India. Ireland's Kate Taylor moved into the finals of the lightweight class by downing Mavzuna Chorieva of Tajikistan 17-9. Taylor's opponent in the gold medal bout will be Sofya Ochigava of Russia, who was a 17-11 winner over Adriana Araujo of Brazil. All the American men boxers were eliminated from the competition prior to the semifinals.