KATIE TAYLOR IS just one fight away from a guaranteed Olympic medal after receiving a bye in the first round draw this morning.
Defending her Olympic title and entering the competition as the top seed in the 60kg weight division, the Bray fighter will skip the preliminaries of the Olympic competition.
She will now enter the frame again in the quarter-finals. Her opponent will be either Finland’s Mira Potkonen or Adriana Araújo of Brazil.
Joining Katie in the waiting game is world champion Michael Conlan who also received a bye for the preliminary round of his Olympic Games.
He will sit out the weekend’s bouts in the 56kg division in Rio de Janeiro given his top seeding and enter the competition at the last 16 stage.
They are two of five Irish boxers through following this morning’s official draw in the Bradesco Theatre.
Paddy Barnes, seeded number four, also received a bye in today’s draw for the 49kg light flyweight division. He is now through to the final 16 with his first fight scheduled for Monday, 8 August.
However, there will be fights for Brendan Irvine, David Oliver Joyce and Stephen Donnelly.
A flyweight, Irvine will face Shakhobiddin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the 52kg division on 13 August.
Joyce’s welterweight opponent is the Seychelles’ Andrique Allsop, while Donnelly comes up against Zoheir Kedache from Algeria in the 75kg middleweight division.
The unseeded Joyce will be first in the ring with his bout scheduled for Saturday.
