Irish boxer in easy first victory in Bejing

Ken Egan has been impressive in winning his preliminary round light-heavyweight round at the Olympic Games.

The Dubliner was a 22-2 winner on points over the Virgin Islander Julius Jackson.

Egan, who is captain of the Irish team, said he was happy to have come through unscathed: "It was a good performance," he said.

"The whole idea was just to get the points up and build on it. But I’m happy enough with the performance today, so it’s back to the drawing board now and we’ll have a look at our next fight."

National team coach Billy Walsh said the victory has put Ireland on track for hopefully a good fortnight: "It’s always hard to fight someone that you’ve already beaten. There was a lot of pressure on today. Ken is the captain, he was the first one in the ring, and he wanted to show the boys the way."