Barnes: If I win gold medal, I’ll be happy

Paddy Barnes made history by becoming the first Irish boxer to win two Olympic medals when he assured himself of another bronze with an emphatic 23-18 victory over Devendro Singh Laishram (India) in an entertaining light flyweight quarter final last night.

Following on Katie Taylor’s silver medal performance earlier in the day, the Belfast man’s achievement also means that the team has now equalled the best-ever performance by an Irish boxing team at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 when they won one silver and three bronze medals.

But High Performance Coach, Billy Walsh, pointed out that there is still Katie’s final today when she will almost certainly cash in her silver medal for an Olympic Gold and John Joe Nevin, Michael Conlan and now Paddy Barnes face semi-final bouts tomorrow.