The Sunderland Amateur Boxing Club light-heavyweight guaranteed a podium place by dominating Hungary's Imre Szello on the way to a 10-2 quarter-final win in Beijing yesterday.

Impressive Irishman Kenny Egan awaits in Friday's semi-finals and both men are hungry for a place in Sunday's gold medal match.

Jeffries – Sunderland's first ever Olympic medalist - said: "I've made the mistake before of settling for second best.

"One of my big regrets is that I took my foot off the pedal at last year's World Championships and didn't get a medal. I knew I'd qualified for the Olympics and lost focus.

"Guaranteeing a medal here is the proudest achievement of my life, but I don't want to stop at bronze.

"I've got this far and now I want to go all the way."

After scraping unconvincingly through his opening Olympic bout last week, Jeffries was a changed man yesterday.

He fell a point behind in the opening seconds against Szello, but quickly responded and got on top, leading at the end of each of the four rounds to claim a third win in as many clashes with the Hungarian – who he'd beaten as recently as June.

"The last fight I had against Szello was probably the hardest of my life," said the 23-year-old. "I won, but I got my tactics wrong and played into his hands.

"Terry Edwards (GB coach) and I worked out different tactics this time and they were perfect. I kept on the move and caught him with long, straight shots.

"I expected more from Szello, but he never got near me to hurt me."

After beating Szello at the EU Nations tournament in Poland, Jeffries
went on to lose to Egan in the final.

The Wearsider retired at the end of the third round when he was 14-7 down after suffering a cut eye.

"I'm not kidding myself," said the honest 23-year-old. "Egan's a strong lad and very hard opponent.

"I've got huge respect for him.

"But I always believe in my ability. I've dedicated the last two years of my life to getting an Olympic medal – all those cold morning runs have paid off so far."

Getting into the medals completed a dramatic turn around for Jeffries, who was dropped from the Olympic programme last year and disappointingly failed to get a prize at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

"I've had my ups and downs and a couple of years ago I was on a bit of a down" he said.

"But my family and girlfriend and all of Sunderland have been brilliant and I really thank them all. This was a win for all of Sunderland.

"Everybody in this country would love to go to the Olympics and I've done that. I'm very proud to be British and to win a medal and help Great Britain on the medal table."