Joyce flies the flag for Ireland in Olympic boxing

Light welterweight John Joe Joyce produced arguably his best ever performance to march into the last 16 of the Olympic Games following a 9-5 victory over Gyula Kate of Hungary this morning.

Kate had beaten Joyce, nicknamed triple J, three times in the last two years in the run up to today's showdown at the Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing.

But there was no four-in-a-row for the Hungarian against the St Michael's Athy man, who boxed with skill, precision and composure to maintain Ireland's excellent start to the 29th Olympiad.

Twenty-year-old Joyce, who was boxing out of the red corner against Kate, will now face Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic in the last 16 next Thursday.

Diaz came from behind to see off the challenge of Eduard Hambartsumyan of Armenia today, winning 11-5.

Diaz's best performance over the last three years saw him reach the quarter finals of the Pan American Games.

The 25-year-old qualified for the Olympics after claiming a silver medal at the second American qualifiers.

Meanwhile, bantamweight John Joe Nevin meets Abdelhalim Ourradi of Algeria on Tuesday.

Ourradi beat Nevin in a test match on a count back by a margin of one point after both boxers were level on scores at the end of four rounds when both met in a training camp in Bugeat, France earlier this year.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes have both received byes into the last sixteen and will be in action on Saturday, August 16.

If Sutherland advances from next weekend's encounter, then he could face a quarter final re-match with Alfonso Blanco of Venezuela, who qualified for the Olympics after recording a 20-13 win over Sutherland at the World Championships in Chicago.