Nevin facing enormous task

WITH his bronze medal already secure, John Joe Nevin will go into this afternoon’s (3.30pm) clash with Eduard Abzalimov of Russia bidding for a place in tomorrow’s bantamweight final.

He faces an enormous task. The Russian is a former European junior champion and world junior silver medallist and replaces their representative who went out early in Beijing last year and has subsequently moved up a division to featherweight.

“John Joe is in good form,” Irish head coach, Billy Walsh, said. “He is very, very happy. He is just 20 years of age and is already a world medallist. He is coming to terms with that and he is going around with a smile on his face.