By David Field, PA Boxing Correspondent, Sydney

Cuba's Felix Savon has moved to within one victory of emulating his great compatriot Teofilio Stevenson's hat-trick of Olympic heavyweight gold medals.

Savon won the ultimate prize in Barcelona and Atlanta, and his semi-final victory over Germany's Sebastian Kober at Darling Harbour put him in the Sydney 2000 final on Saturday against the Russian Sultanahmed Ibzagimov.

Savon, 33, was relatively cautious at the start against the German who had boxed so soundly to win his quarter-final and trailed 2-1 at the end of the opening round.

But the defending champion had, in those couple of minutes, weighed up exactly what his opponent had to offer.

After that initial assessment, the punches came with greater regularity and he swept into a 9-2 lead with his superior strength and experience overcoming Kober's qualities, before going on to win 14-8.

However, victory did not come without a small cost and Savon finished the bout with nicks on the bridge of his nose and under the left eye.

Ibzagimov beat the negative Georgian Vladimir Tchantouria 19-4 in his semi-final and simply could not draw his foe into a fight.

The big crowd voiced their disapproval of the drab affair in front of them and amused themselves with the Mexican Wave.

On this evidence, it would appear the Russian southpaw does not possess the adequate skill or power to upset Savon's march to another gold.

Savon was joined in the finals by fellow countrymen Rigondeaux Ortiz (bantam), Mario Kindelan (light) and Jorge Gutierrez (middle), and tomorrow light welter Diogenes Luna could make it a five-man Cuban attack on the gold medals. He meets Ricardo Williams of the United States.