BOXING:IRELAND'S 10-man boxing team was reduced to one after yesterday's three quarter-final bouts ended with just Cavan's John Joe Nevin advancing in the AIBA World Championships in Baku.

Following the delight of Ireland team coach Billy Walsh on Tuesday after three of the team, Nevin, Darren O’Neill and Michael Conlan, gained automatic qualification for next year’s Olympics, it was Nevin who progressed as middleweight O’Neill and lightweight Conlan were both defeated.

In beating Uzbek boxer Orzubek Shayimov, Nevin became the first Irish fighter to win medals at two World Championship events. The 22-year-old, who also qualified for the last Olympics in Beijing three years ago, won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in Milan. He now progresses to meet England’s Luke Campbell for a possible silver medal.

“We ask of the team to leave everything they have in that ring, for the country and for the cause and they all do that,” said Walsh. “It’s a fantastic week, a roller-coaster of a week, so many chances actually and to come away with one, it was fantastic. John Joe Nevin, again to go behind in the first round, to go behind in the second round and again pull it back again in the third round. It was a fantastic by him.”

As Walsh said, Nevin’s quarterfinal was like Tuesday’s fight, fraught and tight right down to the buzzer. Once again the Irish bantamweight found himself behind going into the third having trailed from the opening round 7-4. Following a brighter second, he was still chasing Shayimov and having to make up at least two points down the stretch at 11-9.

But once more Nevin found more aggressive and accurate form, this time after the referee instructed both of the fighters to box. The last 30 or 40 seconds ended in a flurry with Nevin landing more cleanly for a 19-17 win.

West Belfast’s Conlan was narrowly beaten to the bronze medal 25-24 by European champion Andrew Selby from Wales. The disappointment for the 19-year-old was that he won the second and third rounds 10-9 but having lost the first round 7-4, he missed out on the podium by just one point overall. Given the ability of his opponent, it was the rookie from the Falls Road that drew particular praise from Walsh.

“The other two lads performed admirably,” said Walsh. “Darren O’Neill had a very, very strong Japanese boxer, who had beaten the world champion on his way. Three days in a row was a little too much but Michael Conlon was a revelation.

“I thought he was very, very unlucky not to beat the European champion. He won two rounds and lost one round and ended up losing the fight, which I thought was a very poor reflection of what happened in the ring.”

O’Neill, as expected faced a relentless opponent in Japan’s Ryota Murata, who led the fight from start to finish. Always moving forward, Murata took a one-point lead after the first three minutes before a more decisive second round when he led 10-7.

Tiring O’Neill went down on one knee in the third round claiming a low blow, although the referee instructed the two to continue. But the Irishman was out of gas and after a standing count it was all over, Murata emerging the winner 18-9.

One glimmer of hope, though, still exists for welterweight Roy Sheehan. The St Michael’s Athy fighter could still make it to London 2012 if a semi-final bout falls in his favour.

The ‘back door’ route could come about if Lithuania’s Egid Kavaliauskas wins his semi-final tomorrow. An AIBA ruling states that the quarter-finalists in the 69kg division get automatic qualification for London 2012, while those losers in the final 16 will also qualify if they lost to the eventual finalists. As Sheehan was beaten by Kavaliauskas, a semi-final win would put him into the final and the Irishman through.

The outlook is much more clear-cut for the disappointed light heavyweight Joe Ward and lightweight, David Oliver Joyce, who missed out on Olympic qualification on Tuesday. Both will have to travel to the qualification event next April to book their tickets to London.

“He ran the last round. I couldn’t catch him,” said a deflated Conlan at the end of the day. “I’ve had wars,” he added of his run of bouts in Baku. “But I’m going to London. I’m happy.”