Dean Clancy marches into last 16 with impressive win at European Games in Poland

Dean Clancy took an impressive first step in his bid to reach the Olympic Games in Paris next year when the Sean McDermott Boxing Club fighter scoring an impressive 5-0 victory in his opening bout of the European Games in Poland on Friday.

The Sligo native eased past Austria's Arsen Chabyan with a stylish performance that saw him dominate on the Judge's scoreboard in the lightweight division (63.5kg), leaving him just two fights away from sealing a place in next year's Olympic Games in Paris.

Dean now takes on Azerbaijan's Malik Hasanov on Sunday at 12.45 in the last 16 bout after Hasanov also won his round of 32 bout 5-0, defeating Poland's Bartlomiej Roskowicz to qualify for a meeting with the Irish champion.

In the official scoring, two of the judges scored all three rounds for Clancy, one at 30-27 and the second at 30-26, while the other judges also marked Clancy down as the winner with scores of 29-28 on all three scorecards. All five judges marked Dean down as the winner of both the first and second rounds with three of the judges giving the nod to the Austrian in the final round.

The Austrian went for broke in the final round but was unable to trouble the technically superb Clancy who frustrated his opponent to leave him just two wins away from a place at the Olympics.