Darren O’Neill’s Rio dream comes to an end in Baku

Irish head coach Zaur Antia believes Michael O’Reilly and Dean Gardiner can take another step towards Olympic qualification tonight after Darren O’Neill’s dream of reaching a second Games ended yesterday.

Portlaoise middleweight O’Reilly and Clonmel super-heavyweight Gardiner are the last Irishmen standing at the final ‘amateur’ Olympic qualifier in Baku and both fight in this evening’s session at the Sarhadchi Arena.

World medallist O’Reilly, the No 1 seed at 75kg, will take on Mongolian Shinebayar Narmandakh after overcoming Vitali Bandarenka of Belarus yesterday with a 3-0 win.