GWENT’S latest Olympian was back in action yesterday and it was further progress for Fred Evans in boxing’s welterweight 69kilos division.

He has had to wait a couple of days before climbing back into the ring after his first round victory but really got the bit between his teeth yesterday as he disposed of the number four seed Egidijus Kavaliauskas, from Lithuania, by 11 points to seven.

Evans is now tantalisingly close to claiming a medal, just one more win when he takes on Custio Clayton of Canada will guarantee the 21-year-old a bronze for reaching the semi-finals. What a debut in the Olympics that would be.

The athletics began yesterday but, across the way from the Olympic Stadium, there was a real contrast in distances at the Aquatics Centre during the morning swimming events.

First, the women, many of whom had been training for these Games all their lives from places like Angola, Congo and Lithuania, had their 30 seconds of action over just one length in the fast and furious 50m freestyle.

After they finished, the men, including Wales’ own David Davies, jumped in for the longest of the pool events, the 1500m.. four heats of a quarter-of-an-hour at least each.

Davies came sixth in his heat and said he was probably going to quit swimming. What a great career the man from Barry has enjoyed, with two Olympic medals and a Commonwealth Games gold in 2006.

  • If you’ve ever been to America and seen a major league basketball match, you will understand how massive the sport is there.

At the Olympics, watching the USA Dream Team is the hottest ticket in London. The Americans are paid millions by their clubs and were in rampaging form in the late-night match, staged for TV in the States, I witnessed, they hammered Nigeria by a record 156-76.

  • Rail commuters sometimes suffer the frustration of a signal failure at Newport Station that brings chaos to the system.

But nothing can compare with the same problem on one of London’s busiest underground networks at rush hour on the day that the Olympic athletics began.

The Central Line was shut while the problem was repaired and meant no services on the ultra-fast Javelin train to Stratford from St Pancras International.

So, literally a thousand of people queued inside the station – and another few thousand were outside. Pretty crazy.