Middleweight Darren Sutherland will bid to become the third Irish boxer to make it through to the semi-finals of the 2008 Olympics Games at the Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing at around 1pm today.

The Irish Olympic squad could avail of five of 19 byes at the draw for the Olympic boxing event which will take place at the Asia Hotel in Beijing this Friday morning, 11am local time).

Katie Taylor, the reigning World and European lightweight champion, progressed to the quarter finals of the Ahmet Comert Cup following a convincing win over reigning European light welterweight champion Lucie Bertaud in Turkey this afternoon.

Nine Irish boxers are in top 20 positions in the official European men's and women's rankings for December.