Amateur Boxing/National senior championships: This year's National Senior Championships, which get under way at the National Stadium this evening, rank among the least predictable of recent times, not least because five of last year's champions have since switched to the professional game.

Seven reigning title holders, though not all of them operating at the same weight as 12 months ago, are in opposition to ambitious challengers who recently emerged as sound prospects from the highly successful National Intermediate Championships.

The best known of the defending champions is perhaps Athens Olympian Andy Lee, of the St Francis, Limerick, club, who is bidding for a three-in-a-row title haul.

Lee has been consistently impressive since lifting his first senior title by beating Ulster champion Eamonn O'Kane by more than double scores in the 2003 deciders.

The Limerick man's chances of recording the hat-trick improved considerably yesterday with the late withdrawal of Darren Sutherland of the St Saviour's club.

Defending heavyweight champion Alan Reynolds, of St Joseph's, Sligo, will be trying for a sixth title, having reigned supreme at light-heavyweight from 1999 to 2002. Ulster champion Pat Smythe of Keady could prove his main challenger.

Former bantamweight winner Eric Donovan of St Michael's, Athy, is set to make a winning move to the featherweight division.

The four Joyces - David Anthony, David Oliver, John Joe and David, not all related - are poised to boost the St Michael's medal haul for coach and Irish Amateur Boxing Association president Dom O'Rourke.

This week's champions will compete in next month's Four Nations championship in Liverpool, after which the team to box against the visiting Cubans in Liverpool and Dublin will be named.

Eighty-five entries will go to the scales, with boxing beginning at 7pm this evening. Two sessions are on tomorrow.