Limerick man Andy Lee progressed to the semi-finals of the European Senior Boxing Championships in Pula, Croatia, yesterday and qualified for the Olympic Games in Athens when he defeated Nikola Vujasinovic of Serbia-Montenegro by 28-20.
Lee opened up a lead of 6-2 in the first round, and in the second continued to wait for his opponent's approaches and picked him off with the left, ending the round with an increased lead of 13-6.
The Serbian had more success catching the elusive Irishman in the third, landing a few scoring blows as the round drew to a close, but Lee rallied to ensure he maintained his lead.
In the last round Lee had to avoid the Serbian's big shots. He never threatened and Lee won handily. He will meet Lukas Wilaschek (Germany) in the semi-final tomorrow evening.
Gary Keegan, performance director of the Irish squad said: "This means so much for the team, everybody has put in so much work in the high performance squad, and this is the reward. It is a real team effort as all the team supported him completely all week. On tonight's performance he has a great chance of progressing, but everything from now on is a bonus."