Boxing: Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland and flyweight Conor Ahern both made good starts by winning their opening bouts of the AIBA Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens today.
St Saviours boxer Sutherland won his preliminary fight by a unanimous five rounds to nil win against Finland's Niko Jokinen and will now face Norway's Eneste Glodi in the last 16 tomorrow.
Ahern never trailed before winning 18-14 over Sweden's Salomo N'Tune.in the flyweight category. However, the Baldoyle boxer sustained a cut over the left eye and it remains to be seen if he will be fit for Wednesday's semi-final bout. He is due to take on Batomunko Vankeyeu from Belarus.
There was disappointment for Donegal's Willie McLoughlin who bowed out of the welterweight tournament. He narrowly lost 13-11 to Bosnia's Velibor Vidic.
In all, nine Irish boxers are in Athens with hopes of making their respective finals so they can book their place on the plane to Beijing later this year.
The only exceptions are Sutherland and Willie McLoughlin in the welterweight section. Should they advance to the semi-finals they will face a box-off with the other beaten semi-finalist for a place at the Olympics. A total of 25 Olympic places will be distributed in Athens this week.
Sutherland, Irish captain Ken Egan, David Oliver Joyce, John Joe Joyce, Ross Hickey, Tom Sheahan and Cathal McMonagle are all in action tomorrow.
Ireland's Paddy Barnes (light flyweight) and John Joe Nevin (bantamweight) have already qualified for Beijing.
Irish squad competing at the AIBA Olympic Qualifiers,
Athens April 7th-12th
51Kg (Flyweight) Conor Ahern (Baldoyle)
57Kg (Featherweight) David Oliver Joyce (St Michael's Athy)
60Kg (Lightweight) Ross Hickey (Grangecon)
64Kg (Light welterweight) John Joe Joyce (St Michael's Athy)
69Kg (Welterweight) Willie McLoughlin (Illies GG)
75Kg (Middleweight) Darren Sutherland (St Saviours OBA)
81Kg (Light heavyweight) Ken Egan (Neilstown)
91Kg (Heavyweight) Tom Sheahan (St Michael's Athy)
91+Kg (Super heavyweight) Cathal McMonagle (Holy Trinity)