Khan congratulates DeGale

Amir Khan has congratulated James DeGale for his fantastic achievement on winning Olympic gold and the GB boxing team on their greatest medal haul in over 50 years. Khan, silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, watched on TV the progress of the battling Brits in Beijing and sat riveted to the screen as DeGale conquered dirty Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux - who sank his teeth into the Londoner in the opening round. The Bolton star, who is preparing for his big fight next month against Breidis Prescott in Manchester, said, "Firstly, I send my congratulations to James DeGale on his magnificent achievement to become the Olympic Champion. He has done himself and Great Britain proud and I'm so happy for him. What he has done will change the course of his life. He will probably still be in dreamland for a while and it might not have sunk what he has done yet." He added, "I did my training session early so that I could watch DeGale in his final bout. I couldn't believe it when Correa bit Degale but it was a desperate move as he was five points behind. The bout was very close until the end but Degale showed his class and overcame a difficult opponent to win the greatest achievement in the amateur sport," Khan was the only GB boxing representative at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the nation were glued to their TV screens as they watched the heroic exploits of the then 17-year-old. In Beijing there were eight representatives - seven after Frankie Gavin failed to make weight - and they had their most successful team since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He said, "I've been watching and supporting all the lads on TV whenever they have been boxing - I would have been in Beijing cheering them on if I wasn't training for my September 6 fight - and I thought all the guys were tremendous out there," "Tony Jeffries and David Price did fantastically well to win bronze medals and I send my congratulations to those guys for their superb performances. And also a big congratulations to Billy Joe Saunders, Bradley Saunders, Joe Murray and Khalid Yafai - even though they didn't win medals the experience would have done them the world of good and will stand them in good stead for the future. "Obviously I was disappointed when top prospect Frankie Gavin couldn't go and who knows what he could have achieved had he competed."