Portugal's Pedro Figueiredo took advantage of a spectacular eagle two to fire a course record five-under par 67 and snatch a share of the lead entering the final 36-holes of the AIB Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin.

The 16-year-old holed a seven-iron from 154 yards at the 410-yard eighth to turn in two-under par before picking up three birdies in his last five holes to top the leaderboard with 26-year-old

Englishman Mark Thisleton (68) on four-under par 140.

The pair hold a slim, one-stroke lead over Scotland international Paul O’Hara (71) with Banbridge’s Connor Doran (71), Forrest Little’s Eoin Arthurs (74), Irish Close champion Shane Lowry (71) and

Frenchman Olivier Serres (72) lurking just two strokes off the pace on two-under par 142.

Beaten four times in championship semi-finals, 25-year-old Ulsterman Doran was three-over after ten holes but played the remainder in four under for a 71 that kept his hopes very much alive.

Bidding for his third victory of the season, Irish champion Lowry birdied the 17th for his second 71 on the trot, explaining: “I have to keep doing what I am doing and hope a few putts drop. I am nearly

there I feel there is a good score in me this week.”

AIB Irish Amateur Open, Royal Dublin (par 72)

After 36 Holes:

140: P Figueiredo (Portugal) 73 67, M Thistleton (England) 72 68

141: P O'Hara (Scotland) 70 71

142: C Doran (Banbridge) 71 71, S Lowry (Esker Hills) 71 71, O Serres

(France) 70 72, E Arthurs (Forrest Little) 68 74

143: F De Vries (Holland) 73 70, G Cambis (France) 72 71

144: M Oueld-Es-Cheikh (France) 73 71

145: J Morris (Rosslare) 76 69, C Macaulay (Scotland) 75 70, F Keenan

(England) 73 72, M Delay-Termoz (France) 73 72, N Gorey (Lee Valley)

73 72, K McNicoll (Scotland) 73 72, R Kellett (Scotland) 73 72, N

Kearney (Royal Dublin) 72 73, D Lernihan (Castle) 72 73, B Hemstock

(England) 70 75

146: F Abadie (France) 76 70, V Guillaume (France) 75 71, R Cannon

(L'town & B'town) 74 72, P Murray (Limerick) 73 73

147: G Dear (Scotland) 74 73, E Richardson (England) 73 74, J Brun

(France) 73 74, H Satama (Finland) 73 74

148: A Knappe (Germany) 77 71, F Rouilleaux (France) 75 73, J Smedley

(England) 75 73, G Ozcan (Turkey) 75 73, M Veijalainen (Finland) 74

74, J Mikkelsen (Norway) 73 75, J Fox (Portmarnock) 73 75, J Carvill

(Warrenpoint) 72 76

149: A Gabella-Wenne (Sweden) 80 69, J Lando-Casanova (France) 78 71,

P O'Hanlon (Curragh) 77 72, W Booth (Scotland) 77 72, F Illouz

(France) 76 73, A Hogan (Newlands) 76 73, T Pollari (Finland) 75 74,

Z Gould (Wales) 74 75, R Carson (Scotland) 74 75, A Kristiansen

(Norway) 70 79

Non-qualifiers:

150: R McGee (Malone) 78 72, R Leonard (Banbridge) 77 73, C Perrot

(France) 76 74, M Hillson (Scotland) 76 74, J Guilllet (France) 75

75, J Lyons (Galway) 75 75, A Levy (France) 74 76, P Cutler

(Portstewart) 73 77, C Curley (Newlands) 73 77, B Newsome (England)

70 80

151: D Bobrowski (France) 79 72, R McKnight (Scotland) 78 73, G Yates

(Scotland) 77 74, N Henderson (Scotland) 76 75, J Stalter (France) 76

75, M Stewart (Scotland) 75 76, B Walton (The Island) 74 77, R Hooper

(Wales) 74 77, J Roth (Denmark) 73 78, M Durcan (Co Sligo) 72 79, X

Poncelet (France) 72 79

152: M Lavelle (K Club) 78 74, E Mercadier (France) 78 74, M Hocaoglu

(Turkey) 77 75, T Dreher (France) 77 75, D Antonelli (France) 75 77

153: K McDonagh (Athlone) 78 75, S Brown (England) 77 76, J Monaghan

(The Island) 77 76, S Gautier (France) 77 76, S Henry (Scotland) 76

77, L Eriksson (Finland) 75 78, J Lerchedahl (Denmark) 74 79

154: K McAlpine (Scotland) 80 74, T Gornik (Slovenia) 80 74, E

Vieilledent (France) 78 76, O Sharpe (England) 77 77, P McLean

(Scotland) 76 78, R Durnin (L'town & B'town) 74 80, E Kennedy

(Rosapenna) 73 81

155: L Lennox (Moyola Park) 80 75, S Webster (Castle) 79 76, L

Tintera (Czech Republic) 78 77, Z Saltman (Scotland) 77 78, S Malone

(Australia) 75 80

156: S McAllister (Scotland) 79 77, M Novy (Czech Republic) 78 78, A

McAllister (Portmarnock) 77 79, G Lawlor (City West) 77 79, J

Gallagher (Scotland) 77 79, L Weber (France) 75 81

157: K Turlan (France) 84 73, T Linard (France) 82 75, R Boal

(Castle) 78 79, N Grant (Knock) 77 80

158: N Dean (England) 84 74, M Sinclair (Knock) 84 74

159: A Pierse (Tipperary) 83 76, E Charmat (France) 83 76, G Blainey

(England) 81 78, G Hall (Edenderry) 80 79

160: E McAnoy (Knock) 80 80, L Cohen-Boyer (France) 74 86

161: J Prince (England) 85 76, X Feyaerts (Belguim) 82 79, N

Peyrichou (France) 82 79

162: R Dupuis (France) 79 83

165: B Fennelly (Royal Dublin) 78 87

169: A Arnaudet (France) 91 78

DQ: R Zwahlen (France) 76 DQ

WTD: R McCarthy (The Island) 77 WD