Olympic medals, European medals, Commonwealth medals. Paddy Barnes has them all. Only a podium place at the world championships still eludes the Belfast boxer and he is determined that is about to change.

There was double joy for Ireland in the EUBC European Men's Boxing Championships in Belarus today as both Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin and middleweight Jason Quigley were crowned champions.

Ireland’s boxers are on the brink of a gold rush at the 40th European Championships in Belarus.

PADDY BARNES became the first Irish boxer to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games with an emphatic 33-12 points victory over the highly-rated Japanese champion, Kenju Ohkubo, in an action-packed contest at the world championships in Chicago yesterday.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE claimed a valuable multi-nations gold medal in Ballybunion last night when he forced Dennis Makarov of Germany to take two standing counts before his corner threw in the towel in the third round of the bantamweight final.