Olympics - Boxing: After the bitter disappointment of Paddy Barnes and Darren Sutherland exiting from the Workers' Gymnasium earlier in the day, team captain Kenny Egan kept the home fires burning as he reached Sunday's light heavyweight final.
Egan, all poise and power, comfortably overcame Britain's Tony Jeffries 10-3 to guarantee at least a silver medal in Sunday's decider against China's Zhang Xiaopingin.
In a typically low-key start, Egan sounded out the English fighter with his stinging right jab but registered just one early score with the judges that was swiftly cancelled out by Jeffries with the first round ending 1-1.
However the Dublin Southpaw got busy in the second, deploying numerous combinations that Jeffries was unable to bat away. By the end of the round, Egan was 4-1 ahead and a dispirited Jeffries was offering precious little resistance.
The third offered no respite for the British fighter as Egan went through the gears once more, working his way in close, tagging on points and swiftly backing out of range as Jeffries groped at thin air.
Egan's silky skills and unerring accuracy again caught the eye of the judges in the last, as he continued his quest for a first Irish boxing gold since Michael Carruth at Barcelona in 1992.
Earlier in the day Barnes' Olympic dream crashed against the rock that is Zou Shiming in the light flyweight semi-final as the Belfast man was completely outclassed by the reigning world champion.
Barnes was overwhelmed 15-0, failing to land a single scoring blow against the elusive home favourite.
As with Sutherland, Barnes will have the consolation of taking home a bronze medal from these Games, but in the immediate aftermath of today's fight the 21-year-old was taking little solace from that fact.
"There's no doubt about it, he beat me fair and square, but not to score a point is a bit embarrassing," a bitterly disappointed Barnes explained.
Barnes clearly felt a number of his punches should have scored with the judges and pointed an accusing finger in their direction afterwards.
"I hit him with a lot of shots," he added. "I get drug tested. It should be the judges that get drug tested, not me. They can keep their bronze medal for all I care. What's a bronze medal? It's for losers."
Although Barnes can count himself unlucky not to register a point, the Chinese fighter was much the better throughout a one-sided contest.
Sutherland's march to the Olympic final was the first to come to a shuddering halt as he was comprehensively beaten by long-time rival James DeGale. The Dubliner lost 10-3 to the British fighter.
The pair had met on five previous occasions, with Sutherland having claimed four of those wins, but DeGale was the better boxer in today's middleweight semi-final.
Having promised to keep his distance and pick his shots, DeGale was as good as his word in a supremely controlled display. Sutherland, more accustomed to fighting at close quarters, could simply not find his range.
A cagey opening round saw the spoils shared (1-1) but there were already ominous signs that Sutherland would struggle to live with DeGale's tactics. Fighting off the back foot, DeGale was content to draw Sutherland forward and thread accurate shots through the Dubliner's high guard.
DeGale's counterpunching game plan bore fruit in the second as he opened a 3-1 lead and the real damage was done in the third, Sutherland being continually tagged as he fell 8-2 behind.
It left Sutherland, who now plans to turn professional, needing an unlikely knockout and as he bulled forward DeGale picked him off with two more shots to seal his passage.
"I'm happy enough, you know," Sutherland said afterwards. "I came out here to do my best and give it 100 per cent. I'm a fighter and I like to get stuck in. If he wants to run and rob the points, well then so be it.
"My ambition coming in here was to perform and take it one fight at a time. I'm delighted with a bronze Olympic medal, no-one can take that away from me. This is only the beginning. You wait until I turn professional, there's many more exciting nights to come."
DeGale, who had scored the biggest upset so far by ousting Kazakh Bakhtiyar Artayev, the welterweight champion from the 2004 Athens Games, in the previous round, is now one win away from handing Britain their first boxing title since Audley Harrison took super-heavyweight gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Standing in his path in tomorrow's final is Cuban Emilio Correa, who outpointed India's Vijender Kumar 8-5.