Price: I feel different

Although he is far from finished with the Olympic boxing competition, he admits that David Price woke from his sleep on Tuesday morning a changed man. Price is a guaranteed medal-winner after reaching the semi-finals of the super-heavyweight division and on Friday faces Roberto Cammarelle for a place in Sunday's final.
"I do feel different," Price, 25, said. "I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders for starters. I don’t think it will hit me 'til I get home. It’s a strange feeling. I’m happy and over the moon but, at the same time, I’m concentrating on the rest of the tournament."

Price's family arrived in Beijing on the morning of his quarter-final win over Jaroslav Jaksto, of Lithuania. Having his loved ones around was a nice change for him from life in the Olympic Village, which he admits has had him a bit bored.

"I spent time with my family on Tuesday, went down to the silk market to have a look around, went to their hotel to have a laugh and a joke with them and let a bit of steam off," he said. "The night I won the medal wasn’t as mad as it was after the first fight, it was a little bit calmer, all the messages. It probably sank in a bit the day after, but it probably won’t really sink in until I get my medal, whatever colour."

Should Price win on Friday, the final will be the very last event of the Games. And with London hosting the next Olympics, perhaps the ideal final would be Price against Zhang Zhilei, the 6ft 7in Chinese boxer. But Price thinks Zhang has his hands full in his semi-final with the impressive Vyacheslav Glazkov, of Ukraine.

"I fought the Ukrainian in a multi-nations a few years ago. He’s good, he’s strong and he’s beaten the Chinese guy. Obviously, this time it’s in China, so it will be a bit more difficult. It’s a 50-50 fight, I hope it’s a marathon.

"Glazkov beat me on points but it was a silly, silly judging decision. It was a good hard fight, actually, because he had to pull out of his fight the following day. That was just before the Commonwealth Games, it was a preparation for that."

If he won a gold medal, Price would be a huge attraction to the heavyweight ranks. But the Liverpudlian admits he has not thought seriously about turning professional yet. "The last 18 months, I've just thought about the Olympic Games," he said. "It would have been easy to turn pro after I didn’t make it to the last Olympics. But the timing wasn’t right, I wasn’t strong enough, I wasn’t mature.

"I wanted to wait for the right time to turn professional. I never even thought about going professional until I had been to an Olympic Games and I don’t know what I’m going to do after this, to be honest."