Irish boxers ready to fight their corner

Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland and light heavyweight Kenny Egan will be among the first Irish Olympians in action early…

Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland and light heavyweight Kenny Egan will be among the first Irish Olympians in action early on Saturday if they don't have the good fortune to pick up one of the four byes available to each of them when the draw is made tomorrow morning.

Barring good fortune, light welterweight John Joe Joyce looks likely to fight first on Sunday; bantamweight John Joe Nevin on Tuesday; and light flyweight Paddy Barnes next Wednesday.

If any of them do kick off their eastern adventure with a stroke of luck they'll be into the last 16 and just two bouts away from a medal, but talk of that is hushed in the Irish camp at this early stage. As always, according to Irish boxing high performance manager Gary Keegan, it's all about "one fight at a time".

"If you get ahead of yourself, you're out of the game," said Keegan today. "That has happened to these guys, several times, and it's taken them a while to learn from that."

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The quintet returned from an eye-opening training camp in Vladivostock on Monday and have been getting acquainted with their surroundings in Beijing since.

At the pre-Olympic training camp they trained alongside the Russian team, slept in a cramped hostel and endured some questionable cuisine, but it was ideal for toughening up.

"They were rough enough facilities up there," says Keegan, "but what we expected. What we planned for."

The first-time Olympians will compete in very different surroundings when the bell rings in the 13,000-seater Workers Indoor Arena and, byes or not, "they're all in good form", says Keegan.