Irish trio secure Beijing places

THE IRISH Amateur Boxing Association were celebrating on the treble yesterday after three boxers qualified for the Beijing Olympics following semi-final wins at the final Olympic qualifier for Europeans in Athens, Greece.

Irish captain Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce all recorded victories that guaranteed they will be representing their country in Beijing next August.

All three will be boxing for gold medals at Olympic Centre of Nikaia this afternoon following yesterday's hat-trick.

IABA high-performance director Gary Keegan said: "Ken, Darren and John Joe were absolutely magnificent here today. They have all had very tough bouts this week but the still managed to produce outstanding performances against very tough opponents. We are very proud of these achievements . . . If we can win three golds it really would be the icing on the cake."

Joyce, from the St Michael's Athy club, got the day off to a perfect start, taking all four rounds against German light welterweight Sipahi Harun before earning a 27-12 win.

And St Saviour's OBA Dublin middleweight Sutherland followed that up with an inside-the-distance victory over Moldavian Victor Cotiujanschii, who retired injured in the third round. Sutherland was 21-7 up when Cotiujanschii was taken into protective custody by the referee.

Egan was in against light heavyweight Gottlieb Weiss - an opponent he beat 15-12 in a round-robin tournament in Germany last August. And the Neilstown Dublin clubman did the double over his German rival after stepping up a gear in the second round en route to claiming 21-11 verdict.

Yesterday's results mean Ireland will have five boxers competing in Beijing, as Holy Family Belfast light flyweight Paddy Barnes, and Cavan bantamweight John Joe Nevin have already qualified. Having five qualified is a 400 per cent improvement on the 2004 Olympics where Andy Lee was Ireland's sole representative.

Egan said: "We're going for gold tomorrow, have no doubt about it."

OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS(at Athens, Greece): Semi-final results: 64kg: John Joe Joyce (Ire) bt S Harun (Ger) 27-12; 75kg: Darren Sutherland (Ire) bt V Cotiujanschii (Mol) ret 3; 81kg: Ken Egan (Ire) bt G Weiss (Ger) 21-11. Finals (today): 64kg: John Joe Joyce (Ire) v E Kavaliauskas (Lith); 75kg: Darren Sutherland (Ire) v J-M Raymond (Fra); 81kg: Ken Egan (Ire) v A Berdesis (Greece).