BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic showed few signs of vulnerability before overcoming defending champion Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand to win the men's light welter (64kg) title at the Beijing Olympic boxing tournament on Saturday.

    After a square first two bouts, the Domonican had total control of the match in the remaining time to win it at 12-4 for the first gold medal of the Dominican Republic at the Beijing Games.

    Both athletes pulled off a careful game in the first bout as Diaz took a slight upper hand to lead at 2-1. Manus recovered a little then and his hard work got paid when he scored one point with 38 seconds left in the second bout to level things at 2-all.

    But it turned out to be a flash in the pan as Diaz used a 9-1 run to take comfortable lead at 11-3.

    The Dominican never looked back en route to the 12-4 victory.

    "I am very happy with the gold medal and it is the first gold medal of my country in 24 years," said Diaz. "I breezed through the match in a way I like, and I think it is because of my coach, who taught me a lot about the game. I had changed a lot of coaches before."