Two-time Olympic medallist Paddy Barnes edged a step closer to the medals at the AIBA World Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan yesterday.

A RECENT haircut helps accentuate the gaunt features and steely eyes of a man who might have been to hell and back — and is prepared to go the route again.

KENNETH EGAN and welterweight Roy Sheahan are safely through their respective preliminaries and now Darren Sutherland can lead them into the last 16 — just one fight away from Olympic qualification — when he takes on Andranik Hakobyan (Armenia) in what will be his first bout at the world boxing championships in Chicago today.