Irish boxers hoping to paint Vilnius green

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association will be hoping to paint Vilnius green on St Patrick's Day after five Irish boxers marched into today's semi finals of the Danas Pozniakas Junior Multi Nations in Lithuania following impressive last eight wins yesterday.

Bantamweight Mark McCullough, lightweight Anthony Cacace, welterweight Michael Collins and flyweight John Joe Nevin all advanced to the last four and will be in the ring in Vilnius today.

Heavyweight Con Sheehan (Clonmel) received a bye into the semi finals and will face a Russian opponent this afternoon.

McCullough, from the Cairn Lodge club in Belfast, progressed after recording a 3-2 victory over Doos Symzhanuly from Kazakhstan, and lightweight Cacace, (Oliver Plunketts), received a unanimous 5-0 decision over Lithuanian Ant Petrusvkas.

Collins, of the Darndale club in Dublin, is also just one fight from gold after he stopped Lithuanian Farios Dadeb in the second round of his quarter final last night.

John Joe Nevin (Cavan) and featherweight Stephen Donnelly (All Saints Belfast) were also in the ring yesterday with Nevin recording a 5-0 win over Eile Isajevas (Lithuania) but Donnelly was beaten 4-1 by Elierg Irchak from the Ukraine.