Top two finish for Ireland in Athens

Ireland have finished in second spot in a league table of 39 nations based on the points achieved at the final Olympic qualifier for European boxers which concluded in Athens, Greece, yesterday.

France are in pole position, having qualified five boxers for the 2008 Olympics as well as winning three gold and two silver medals in yesterdays finals in the Greek capitol.

Ireland, on 24 points. Four points behind France, finished in second spot after qualifying three boxers, Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce, for the Olympics.

The Irish trio booked their tickets for Beijing on Friday after winning their semi finals and followed that up with three gold medal wins 24 hours later.

Paddy Barnes and John Joe Nevin - who both qualified for the Olympics before Athens - Egan, Sutherland and Joyce will represent their country at the Beijing Workers Arena at the 2008 Olympiad next August.

Qualifying five boxers for the 2008 Olympic Games is a 400% improvement on the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where St Francis Limerick middleweight Andy Lee was Irelands sole representative.

It is also a 400% improvement on Sydney 2000, where, Michael Roche, of the Sunnyside club in Cork, was Ireland's only boxer.

Ireland and France largely avoided each other in Athens.

But in the only head-to-head between both nations, Darren Sutherland claimed gold after Jean-Michael Raymond was retired on his stool at the end of the second round in the 75Kg final. Sutherland was 8-2 up.