Nevin targets gold after booking Beijing ticket

JOHN JOE NEVIN, who was named the Irish Examiner National Junior Sport star for boxing on Wednesday, secured automatic qualification for the Olympic Games with a spectacular victory over Marksym Tretyak from the Ukraine at the qualifying tournament in Pescara yesterday.

However, while that was the object of the mission to Italy’s Adriatic Coast, he vowed he won’t return to Mullingar without the gold medal.

However there was huge disappointment for the Irish team captain, Kenneth Egan, who lost out to the Belarussian light heavyweight, Ramazan Magamedau, in a contest he was expected to win while another Mullingar man, John Joe Joyce, who boxes out of Dominic O’Rourke’s St. Michael’s club in Athy, lost his light welterweight semi-final.