Olympics: Adam Nolan is through to the last 16 of the men's welterweight division at London 2012 after winning his first ever Olympic bout at the ExCel Arena in tonight, but he was rocked in the third round by Ecuadorian Carlos Sanchez Estacio.
The Wexford man, who fights out of the Bray boxing club, almost paid a heavy price for ill-advisedly raising his arms whil against the ropes in the third round and receiving a powerful left hook in response.
It forced him to hold on for the dying seconds against a boxer determined to close the gap opened in the opening two rounds. However, the garda weathered the storm and won 14-8.
Nolan wasted little time in taking the fight to the Ecuadorian and, while he got hit by a few, he used a significant height and reach advantage to dish out more punishment than he received and take a 6-3 lead.
Never afraid to get into a scrap, Nolan allowed the second round follow a similar pattern and it ended a touch closer at 5-3 in the Irishman’s favour for a five-point lead heading into the last.
Sanchez Estacio had little choice but to chase the scores in the third. Nolan looked comfortable despite the frantic pace, but he was undoubtedly caught with his guard down by the late left. It wasn't enough, however, and Nolan maintained Ireland’s 100 per cent record in the ring thus far, follwoing wins for John Joe Nevin and Darren O’Neill yesterday.
The 25-year-old will be back in the ring on Friday night.
Chloe Mageewill be back in action on Tuesday afternoon, having won her first badminton group match against Hadia Hosny of Egypt in two games tonight.
After a slightly nervy start, the Letterkenny woman took the first game 21-17 and that spurred her on to confident second game, which she won by 15 points in 10 minutes.
Magee (23), ranked 44th in the world, will face 33-year-old former world number two Hongyan Pi, in what looks likely to be the group decider.
Kildare canoeist Eoin Rheinischqualified for the semi-final of the K1 slalom, with a 12th place finish after two runs at the Lee Valley White Water Centre. Rheinisch's first run of 89.97 seconds was the quicker of his two and saw him head into the second round in sixth place, before he dropped back after fellow competitors improved.
A place in the top 15 was enough to qualify for Wednesday’s semi-final and the Irishman had two-and-a-half seconds to spare on the slowest qualifier, Japan's Kazuki Yazawa.
Rheinisch recorded a time of 90.72 with his second effort. He was six seconds adrift of German pacesetter Hannes Aigner, who improved by nine seconds on his first run with a time of 83.49.
Britain's Richard Hounslow is one place ahead of Rheinisch after a second run of 89.12.
The Irish sailing pair of Peter O'Leary and David Burrowsare second overall after first day's sailing in the Men's Star at Weynouth.
The duo, that won gold in a pre-Olympic regatta last month, finished 32 seconds behind winners France and nine ahead of third-place Greece in the first race, before coming home in sixth in the second race.
The results leave them with an overall total of eight points, two more than leaders Brazil, who were fourth and second respectively.
The event consists of 10 races and a medal race held between today and Sunday. Race Three gets underway tomorrow at 2.05pm.
Ireland are 10th in the Team Eventingafter today's dressage phase. Camilla Speirs was best of the Irish on Day Two when finishing joint 27th in the individual competition on Portersize Just a Jiff, with penalties of 47.60.
Aoife Clark was 32nd on Master Crusoe with a score of 48.90, while Joseph Murphy (55.60) was 53rd on Electric Cruise, Mark Kyle on Coolio (58.70) was 61st and Michael Ryan on Ballylynch Adventure was 64th (60.20).
Germany lead the team table, while Italy’s Stefano Brecciaroli set the mark in the individual competition at 38.50.
There was no joy for Sycerika McMahonor Melanie Nocherin the Aquatic Centre this morning as both failed to advance past their heats on the second morning.
McMahon, swimming in the women’s 100m breaststroke, finished last in her heat in a time of 1:08.80.
That was never going to be good enough to qualify for the semi-finals and the Portaferry teenager, a silver medallist in the European championships this summer, will have been disappointed not to have posted a personal best.
Earlier this morning, Nocher came third in her heat of the 100m backstroke, posting a time of 1:02.44. Unfortunately that was not quick enough to put her among the 16 swimmers to qualify for the semi-finals.
Australia's Emily Seebohm was the top qualifier with a time of 58.23 seconds. The other top qualifiers were the United States' Melissa Franklin with 59.37 and Australia's Belinda Hocking with 59.61.
Gráinne Murphywas also well below her best in the heats of the 400m freestyle, the 19-year-old some 10 seconds off her qualifying time as trailed home in eighth place. Murphy, whose training has been disrupted as she recovered from a virus this season, could only post a time of 4:19.07.
The New Ross swimmer was clearly upset with her performance and this evening pulled out of tomorrow's 200m freestyle, with a view to focusing solely on the 800m freestyle on Thursday.
Barry Murphy, meanwhile, has spoken of his disappointment at the number of empty seats in the Aquatic Centre for the morning sessions. Olympic organisers were forced to respond to depressing TV images of half-empty stands.
And Murphy, who swan in the heats of the 100m breaststroke yesterday, took to Twitter this morning, saying: “100's of empty seats again in the Aquatic center. My parents would've given an arm and leg to get in yesterday as would the parents today.”