Kenny Egan set the scene for next Friday night’s showdown with Joe Ward in the finals of the Elite National Senior Boxing Championships with a short route victory over Westport’s Eamon Walsh (St Anne’s) in Saturday night’s light heavyweight semi-final at the National Stadium.

JOHN JOE NEVIN arrived back in Dublin last evening with a second bronze medal from the world boxing championships to add to his treasure chest back home in Mullingar and insisting his only regret was not making the final in Baku.

JOHN JOE Joyce faces a really tough assignment in defence of his welterweight crown when the National senior boxing championships get underway at the National Stadium tonight.

OLYMPIC and world champion Usain Bolt recovered from a poor start to win the 100m at the Paris Diamond League meet in 9.84 seconds last night.

PRESIDENT of the IABA, Dominic O’Rourke has described the decision of the Italians to withdraw from Sunday night’s boxing international in Belfast after four bouts as extremely unsporting and totally unnecessary.

IRELAND will have three boxers in semi-final action at today’s European Championships in Liverpool after big quarter-final wins for Olympic light welterweight John Joe Joyce and debutant Eamon O’Kane last night.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE made his exit from the European boxing championships at the wrong end of a 10-2 decision in favour of Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine) in an entertaining quarter-final in Liverpool yesterday.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE, his cousin John Joe Joyce, Belfast middleweight, Eamonn O’Kane and 20-year-old Clonmel heavyweight Con Sheehan will all be battling for medals and semi-final places at the European Boxing Championships in Liverpool today.

BILLY WALSH will be looking for more of the same from Ryan Lindberg and Willie McLoughlin at the European Championships in Liverpool today when Ireland will have four boxers fighting for places in the quarter-finals.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE and Carl Frampton could box-off for the featherweight spot on the Irish team for next month’s European Championships in Liverpool.

Reigning Irish featherweight champion David Oliver Joyce will miss tonight's Open Senior Competition final with Carl Frampton because of an illness.

USAIN BOLT overcame a poor start to claim an easy victory in the 100 metres at the AF Golden League meeting in Zurich despite clearly being under the weather.

Usain Bolt overcame a poor start to claim an easy victory in the 100m at the AF Golden League meeting in Zurich despite clearly being under the weather.

THE contrast between American and Jamaican sprinting was demonstrated again in the 4x100m relays, where the US team dropped the baton in both the men’s and women’s races.

JAMAICA’S Melaine Walker continued her nation’s stunning Olympics, winning gold in the 400m hurdles in a new Olympic record of 52.64s.

JOHN JOE JOYCE claimed his place in the Beijing Olympic Games in spectacular fashion when he outclassed and outpointed Harun Sipahi (Germany) a veteran of the Athens Olympics, 27-12, in an action-packed light welterweight semi-final at the qualifying tournament in Athens yesterday.

Five Irish boxers will be involved in quarter-finals bouts at the final Olympic qualifier for European boxers in Athens, Greece today.

KENNETH EGAN and surprise packets Paddy Barnes and Eric Donovan provide an interesting blend of youth and experience in what will be all-out war for places in the top eight at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.

IT WAS a day of amazing contrasts for Irish boxers at the World Championships in Chicago yesterday when middleweight Darren Sutherland had his hand raised in victory without having thrown a punch and then David Oliver Joyce, who threw every punch in the book, went out of the tournament to Davi Souza of Brazil 21-10.

THE fact that Liverpool was not selected as one of the two European qualifying tournaments for next year’s Olympic Games did not come a great disappointment to Irish boxing’s high performance director, Gary Keegan.

DARREN SUTHERLAND put the finishing touches to a memorable week for the Irish boxers at the multi-nations tournament in Zagreb, Croatia, by stopping local hope Pol Urgoc Sanjin in the third round of their middleweight final to claim the gold medal.

KENNETH EGAN took just 22 seconds to claim his seventh successive national senior title — his fifth at light heavyweight — and he immediately turned his attentions to qualification for next year’s Olympic Games after overwhelming Willie Mitchell in what was the mismatch of the night at the national senior championship finals at the National Stadium last night.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is today beginning a US visit, set to be dominated by the Northern peace process, with a stop-over in Silicon Valley boomtown San Jose which he twinned with Dublin when lord mayor 20 years ago.

DARREN SUTHERLAND looks set to fulfil another ambition tonight by claiming a national senior title at the National Stadium.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE is poised to become the star of the multi-nations boxing tournament in Ballybunion following another spectacular performance at the Tintean Theatre yesterday when he outpointed a teak tough Welshman, Matthew Edmonds, for a place in tonight’s finals.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE got the multi-nations boxing tournament off to the perfect start at the Tintean Centre in Ballybunion last night when he fought his way back to snatch victory from Magomed Abdkhamido of Russia on count-back after a thrilling bantamweight opener.