THE IRISH team performance was badly holed on the second day in Trabzon yesterday. Aside from the controversy surrounding light heavyweight Joe Ward, two other Irish fighters departed from the championships and also from the Olympic Games.

Light welterweight Ross Hickey and super heavyweight from Clonmel Con Sheehan were also beaten in their bouts, leaving four Irish boxers remaining from a team of seven.

Welterweight Adam Nolan was one of the winners on a long day while West Belfast heavyweight Tommy McCarthy also came through his fight with some ease against Bosnian Alem Colpa.

Tall, awkward and for most of his meeting against Poland’s Tomas Kot, the Bray garda Nolan stayed largely in control over the three rounds but contrived to jerk head coach Billy Walsh into a “bloody hell” moment in the third round, when a loopy right hand came all the way from Poznan and caught Nolan flush.

But the Irishman stood up immediately and shook himself, more out of disappointment for having shipped the shot than in any way injured.

Nolan continued to keep his left jab in Kot’s face for most of the evening and led 7-4 from the first round. The Polish fighter was swinging dangerously and was aggressive throughout but Nolan kept his composure to hold his lead for 11-6 in the second, rounding it off nicely 14-9.

“It’s his first time at this major level and it’s been a good performance to beat the Pole,” said Walsh. “He’s still in the draw, he’s in the next round and he’s two fights away from it. Yeah, he was dangerous swinging and he had power too. He did connect correctly and you saw the evidence of that. I’m happy the way Adam recovered. “He was cruising through the fight. He stood up straight away disappointed that he’d been caught.”

McCarthy won his heavyweight bout without extending himself too much. Facing Colpa, he kept his tempo steady throughout and was impressively calculating, controlling all three rounds. He went 4-1 ahead after three minutes, picking his shots with caution and seamlessly moved to 8-2 in the second round.

Flicking a left jab, sometimes contemptuously in the third round and lining up Colpa with his right, McCarthy breezed through the final three minutes 12-3, Colpa unable to throw the Belfast fighter off guard.

It was Hickey who opened yesterday’s afternoon session for Ireland in the light welterweight division (64kg) but came up against a tall, rangy awkward opponent in Dmitri Galagot. As the army private mined away at a physically more imposing opponent, his task seemed to grow rather than diminish as the fight proceeded.

Hickey, a three-times Irish champion, was the more aggressive of the two in the opening exchanges, but as the contest settled, Galagot began picking his scores and landed a heavy blow in the first three minutes that may have shaken the Irishman.

The Moldovan ended the first round just one point ahead at 6-5 but that gap quickly grew to 13-9 after the second three minutes as Hickey was caught on his approach and also in close.

More powerful and with a longer reach, Hickey pushed even harder in the third round for the one Olympic place available in this division knowing all was lost otherwise. But that fell the way of Galagot, who stung him with point-scoring blows and even drew a standing count.

In the end few complained about the 24-11 final score, Hickey drawing the unwelcome label of being the first Irishman out of the competition and London 2012.

TRABZON DETAILS

+ 91kg: Con Sheehan (Ire) lost to Erhan Mohammed Aci (Tur) 12-17.

91kg: Tommy McCarthy (Ire) bt Alem Colpa (BIH) 12-3.

81kg: Joe Ward (Ire) lost to Bahram Muzaffer (Tur) 15-18.

69kg: Adam Nolan (Ire) bt Tomazc Kot (Pol) 14-9.

64kg: Ross Hickey (Ire) lost to Dimitri Galagot (Mol) 24-11.

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

46-49kg: Paddy Barnes (Ire) v Istvan Ungvari (Hun).

60kg: David Oliver Joyce (Ire) v Artur Bril (Ger).