Irish boxers advance in Baku

Ireland’s two boxers in action on Day Five of the European Games in Baku enjoyed facile wins to progress through to the televised stages of their respective weights.

Both Wexford welterweight Adam Nolan and Portlaoise middleweight Michael O’Reilly were awarded every round by every judge in today’s round-of-32 encounters.

Nolan dispatched Albanian Alban Beqiri, while O’Reilly defeated Sanjin Pol Vrgoc of Croatia, both on a comprehensive 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 scoreline.

[comment] Adam Nolan (in red)[/comment]

Nolan is now up against 21-year-old Italian Dario Moriello on Saturday, while O’Reilly must take on Emir Sabotic of Montenegro on Sunday, with live television coverage only kicking in at the weekend.

Longford shooter Derek Burnett improved on his overnight position of 12th after the opening day of Trap Qualification by climbing to 10th, but was two shots and four places away from reaching the top six, and thus the semi-finals.

Russian Alexey Alipov took gold ahead of Erik Varga from Slovakia and Giovanni Pellielo of Italy, who claimed the bronze.

It boosts the Russian medal tally to 29, 16 of them gold, with Azerbaijan the second-most successful nation so far with 10 gold among their haul of 22 medals.