IRELAND’S KEN Egan, Darren O’Neill and Tyrone McCullagh will be taking home bronze medals at least from the European Senior Boxing Championships following a hat-trick of quarter-final wins at the Ice Palace in Moscow yesterday.

Egan outgunned Ainar Karlson, a kick-boxing specialist in his native Estonia, 7-4, to win his second medal at this level. The Neilstown southpaw was 5-4 up going into the third and final round and added the only two points of that period to seal a deserved win.

He will now meet Abdelkader Bouhenia in the last four on Friday in a rematch of the 2009 World Championships clash which the French light-heavyweight won in Milan.

While Egan, O’Neill and McCullagh were celebrating, Beijing Olympian John Joe Joyce, a bronze medal winner at the 2008 Europeans in Liverpool, bowed out after losing out 9-1 to Taras Shelestyuk of the Ukraine.

O’Neill, from the Paulstown club in Kilkenny, exacted a measure of revenge for that reversal when he edged out the hotly-tipped Ukrainian middleweight Sergey Derevyanchenko in a thrilling 75kg last eight duel.

The lead changed hands three times in the final round of this fiercely contested clash, but O’Neill, the current EU champ who works as a school teacher in Dublin, snatched victory from the jaws of a countback with a superb right in the final two seconds with both boxers locked at 6-6.

McCullagh, from the Illies Golden Gloves club in Donegal, beat the fancied Azat Hovhannisyan of Armenia 6-3 in the featherweight quarter final.

Hovhannisyan, who objected vehemently to the verdict immediately after the bout, forced McCullagh into two standing counts in the second. However, it was the Irishman’s cleaner punches that deservedly won this contest.

Ireland head coach Billy Walsh, who watched the Ireland squad secure their sixth, seventh and eight medals at this level this century (and the 40th medal since 1939) admitted O’Neill’s fight was a classic – but not for the faint- hearted.

“Darren had to dig very deep in the final few seconds. He was hurt with a body shot and he was out on his feet in the final round but he showed tremendous character to find that extra bit and the winning score in the final few seconds,” said Walsh.

Ireland will be back in the hunt for more medals today, with Paddy Barnes, John Joe Nevin and Eric Donovan all in action in their quarter-finals.