David Oliver Joyce off to winning start

David Oliver Joyce’s Olympic dream was fulfilled last night in Rio when he stepped into the Olympic ring finally, at the eighth time of asking, at the age of 29, and dumped his opponent Adrique Allisop from the Seychelles out of the competition on a unanimous points decision.

“It’s been a long time coming. The last couple of days I have really begun to focus on being in the Olympics. I’m enjoying it,” he said.

Joyce, a lightweight from Athy, had tried to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in three tournaments but fell short. Again in 2012 he failed in three qualifying tournaments for London but this year at the second attempt this year he qualified for Rio.