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Barnes' Olympic stunt gets team approval

Ireland pair John Joe Nevin and Darren O'Neill hailed team-mate Paddy Barnes' opening ceremony stunt after safely negotiating their respective first round bouts in the Olympic boxing competition at ExCel today.

Barnes, who does not have his first fight until next Saturday, saw his Twitter followers surge after bearing a hand-made sign reading "Open For Sponsors" followed by his social network username in front of an estimated one billion television viewers.

After seeing off Nigeria's Muideen Akanji 15-6 in his opening bout, Ireland captain O'Neill, who watched the ceremony on TV, said: "Paddy showed me the sign before he went but I didn't think he'd dare go through with it.

"Paddy is always a character and I think he's got a sky-rocketing number of followers overnight so fair play to him."

Nevin, who was the biggest scorer of the opening session with a 21-6 win over Dennis Ceylan of Denmark, said: "What Paddy did at the opening ceremony was brilliant. I had an idea he was going to do that. It was great to watch."

Both Nevin and O'Neill received some of the loudest cheers of the opening session, and O'Neill said: "The crowd is very uplifting and you can either get nervous or soak it all in and use the energy. The support out there was phenomenal."

Nevin, seeded fifth despite being ranked four in the world, took care of Ceylan in some style, with a display of unerring accuracy as he dominated his 23-year-old opponent to reach the bantamweight last 16 in style.

Nevin said: "There is always pressure when you are first out because you want to make a good start for the rest of the team, and hopefully my performance can inspire them. I'm feeling great and the arena is a great one to box in."Home

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