Byes available for Irish Olympics boxers

The Irish Olympic squad could avail of five of 19 byes at the draw for the Olympic boxing event which will take place at the Asia Hotel in Beijing this Friday morning, 11am local time).

Unless they receive two of the eight byes available into the last 16 in the light heavyweight (81Kg) and middleweight (75Kg) sections, Irish captain Ken Egan and Sutherland will be in the ring for preliminary round bouts this Saturday.

Light welterweight John Joe Joyce (64Kg), bantamweight John Joe Nevin (54Kg) and light flyweight (48Kg) Paddy Barnes could benefit from three of eleven byes into the last sixteen in the light flyweight, bantamweight and light welterweight sections.

The light welterweights are pencilled in for August 10th, with the bantamweight and light flyweight categories scheduled to glove off on August 12-13.

Two hundred and eighty six boxers will compete in Beijing. The heavyweights and super heavyweights will not receive byes as 16 boxers will compete in each weight category.

The rest of the weights can avail of 34 byes into the last 16. Boxing will take place at the 13,000 capacity Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing.

The Irish squad visited the boxing venue today, and head coach Billy Walsh admitted that he was more than impressed.

He said: "It made the hairs stand on the back of my neck and the place was empty. I can only imagine what the atmosphere will be like when it is full. It is a magnificent venue."

Olympic weight categories (amount of byes available into last sixteen in brackets):

Light flyweight 48kg: (3), Flyweight 51kg: (4), Bantamweight 54Kg: (4) Featherweight 57Kg: (4), Lightweight 60Kg: (4), Light welterweight 64Kg: (4),

Welterweight 69Kg: (3) Middleweight 75Kg: (4), Light heavyweight (4), Heavyweight 91Kg: (None) Super heavyweight 91+Kg: (None)

Irish Olympic Squad and Management

81Kg:Light heavyweight: Ken Egan (Neilstown Dublin) Captain

75Kg:Middleweight: Darren Sutherland (St Saviours OBA Dublin)

64Kg:Light welterweight: John Joe Joyce (St Michael's Athy)

54Kg:Bantamweight: John Joe Nevin (Cavan BC)

48Kg:Light flyweight: Paddy Barnes (Holy Family Belfast)