Ireland's Darren O'Neill celebrates his win against Nigeria's Muideen Akanji.
Ireland’s boxers have made the perfect start to the London Olympics with Adam Nolan, John Joe Nevin and team captain Darren O’Neill all securing first round victories.
Bray-based Garda and former Wexford hurler Nolan overcame a late charge from Ecuador’s Carlos Sanchez Estacio on Sunday night to progress to the last 16 in his first Olympics.
Nevin, meanwhile, defeated Denmark’s Dennis Ceylan in the bantamweight round of 32, on a score of 21-6 while O’Neill got the better of Nigerian Mudeen Akanji on a score of 15-6 to reach the round of 16.
In gymnastics, Kieran Behan had a poor display in the vault and scored a disappointing 13.966 in his favourite event the floor, finishing 16th out of 21 overall. With only eight progressing, his journey in the event come to an end.
In cycling, Nicolas Roche, Dan Martin and David McCann failed to medal in the men’s road race. David McCann was eventually placed 55th, Nicolas Roche was 89th and Daniel Martin finished 90th.
Ireland’s first ever female Judo representative Lisa Kearney lost her match with Shugen Wu of China and is out of the Games.
And there was more disappointment in the pool.
Barry Murphy swam in the 100m breastroke heats, but finished eighth in his heat and was eliminated, while Melanie Nocher, Sycerika McMahon and Grainne Murphy all failed in their attempts to advance through the heats in a disappointing morning for Irish competitors at the Aquatics Centre in London on Sunday.
There was better news in rowing with Sanita Puspure progressing to reach the quarter-finals of the single sculls, finishing third in her heat.
In eventing, Dublin’s Aoife Clark and Master Crusoe are 12th overnight after the first day of dressage. Clark recorded a penalty score of 48.90. Cork’s Michael Ryan finished on a score of 60.20, while Mullingar’s Joseph Murphy completed the day on 55.60.
Camilla Speirs is the best of the Irish after the completion of the dressage phase of the eventing. The Kildare woman finished in a share of 27th place after scoring just 47.60 penalty points on Portersize Just A Jiff.
In sailing, Peter O’Leary and David Burrows finished in sixth place in the Star class race. They now stand second in the overall rankings at Weymouth and Portland Venue, but a cloud hangs over O’Toole who was revealed to have made a bet on an opponent.
Sources close to Irish sailor strongly defended the Corkman claiming ‘he’s done nothing wrong’ with the incident having occurred prior to a rule change that forbade betting by competitors.
