Two Irish boxers, Mark Wickham and Adrian Sheerin, moved into the second round of the European Championship qualifying tournament in Istanbul yesterday, beating opponents from Croatia and Slovakia. Wickham, from Enniscorthy, got the Irish challenge off to an excellent start when he beat Croatian Pero Vocie 7-1 in his light welterweight bout. The Irishman was in control from the start and now has an excellent chance of advancing, as the numbers in his weight category have been reduced to 10. Qualification for the European finals requires him to get into the last eight.

Sheerin, from Swinford, continued the good run with a 15-3 verdict over Anton Hydec from Slovakia in the light heavyweight division. The Irish champion hammered out an impressive 15-3 victory in a division which has 21 entrants. Both boxers need to win again to get into the European finals.

Two other Irish boxers will be in action in the next couple of days when Martin Murphy from St Paul's in Waterford meets a Latvian opponent in the flyweight division and Pat O'Donnell, the Irish featherweight champion, meets an opponent from Belarus in a division which has only 11 entries.

Michael Roche from the Sunnyside club in Cork, the Irish light middleweight champion, will meet Herbert Pavel from Slovenia in his first bout today and should advance in a division which has 21 entries. Much interest is also centred on the Irish super heavyweight champion, Stephen Reynolds from Sligo, who needs only one win to get into the last eight. He meets Ucis Jaunaris from Lithuania in his first bout.

World Boxing Council welterweight champion Oscar de la Hoya has postponed his title bout against Patrick Charpentier of France until March 14th, after injuring his left wrist in training. De La Hoya suffered the injury in sparring over the weekend in California, where he had been training for several weeks.