Irish trio within touching distance of Beijing tickets

KENNETH EGAN, John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce can qualify for the Olympics with just one more victory at the European qualifiers in Pescara this afternoon.

A place in the final will get all three through but there will be a second shot at qualification for bantamweight, John Joe Nevin, if he fails in his bid to make the finals with a third place up for grabs between the two bronze medallists in a box-off tomorrow afternoon.

For Egan and Joyce, who are both assured of bronze medals, it must be either gold or silver from this particular tournament and neither are without a chance with Egan favourite to progress against Ramazan Magmedau from Belarus.