Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland is through to the last 16 at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.

Heavyweight John Sweeney produced one of the best performances of his career to advance to the last 16 of the 2007 World Championships and Olympic qualifiers following a round four stoppage of Serbian Branco Srdic at the University of Illinois in Chicago in the early hours of this morning.

John Joe Joyce bowed out of the AIBA World Championships and Olympic qualifiers at the University of Illinois in Chicago after he lost his preliminary round light welterweight clash to Hungary's Gyula Kate in the early hours of this morning.

WITH John Joe Joyce set to get the show on the road in the early hours of today Irish time, the Irish boxing team were last night perusing what High Performance Director, Gary Keegan, described as a ‘fair’ draw for the world championships in Chicago.