Boxing:Cavan bantamweight John Joe Nevin must settle for a bronze medal at the AIBA World Championships in Milan after a 5-4 defeat to Eduard Abzalimov in his semi-final this afternoon. Ireland's sole survivor in the competition was hoping to go where none of his compatriots have before by reaching a world final.
Having reached the last 16 in Beijing and won a European Union silver medal, hopes were high for the two-time Irish Senior Champion against a fighter ranked at 61 in the world to his 11 but after a lottery of a final round he was beaten by the odd point in nine.
Nevin preferred to move around the ring in the first round and allow his opponent do the chasing. He proved slippery enough to only be tagged once by the Russian but failed to land a punch himself and went into the second round a shade behind.
He boxed more in the second and appeared unlucky not to score on two occasions but kept his opponent at bay heading into the final round.
Needing to score in the last he was aggressive from the off and tagged Abzalimov with a right early on.
The Russian, who had been on the back foot, responded well and caught Nevin in a frantic exchange to retake the lead. With 90 seconds remaining Nevin levelled the scores but again his opponent scored when he had to and put two points between them with half a minute left.
Nevin threw caution to wind and ended up drawing the round 4-4 leaving him to rue that crucial dropped point in the first.
Defeat will be disappointing for Nevin but at 20 he became only the sixth Irishman to win a world amateur medal and hopes are high for another good showing in two years time and at London 2012.