Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlon arrived back in Dublin Airport this afternoon following their success in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) in Venezuela where they both secured their tickets to next year's Olympic Games in Rio.
Barnes, who has won bronze at the last two Olympic Games, prevailed on a split decision against Finol Rivas in the light-flyweight division to stretch his unbeaten run in the event to seven bouts. The judges scored the fight 49-45, 47-48, 49-45 in favour of the 28-year-old.
Bantamweight Conlan, who also won bronze at London 2012, sauntered to a unanimous points victory (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) over Jose Diaz as he climbed to second in the division.
Seventeen Olympic places are up for grabs in the WSB Individual Ranking Series this season. Ireland, courtesy of Barnes and Conlan, have secured two of those berths.
Ireland’s WSB boxers this season are Barnes, Conlan and Adam Nolan (Italia Thunder), Steven Donnelly (Hussars of Poland) and Gary Sweeney and Dean Gardiner (Mexico).
Donnelly, who was very unlucky not to qualify for Rio, and Nolan will be in action in the last weekend of the WSB regular season next weekend.
