Irish boxers fared poorly on the opening day of the Olympic and European qualifying bouts in Tampere in Finland yesterday. Olympic hopeful, John Kinsella from Crumlin in Dublin, was stopped in his opening bout in the super heavyweight division by the Russian Alex Lezin when his right eye closed and he was ruled out at the end of the second round.

Kinsella, until the stoppage, appeared to be well in the fight but his right eye closed rapidly after a clash of heads.

Eugene McEneaney from the Dealgan club in Dundalk, was beaten 8-4 in his lightweight bout by Dimitski Svitlitshni from Ukraine.

Also out of contention for a place in the Olympic Games is Alan Reynolds from Sligo who was beaten 16-2 at light-heavy by a much superior French opponent. Still to come for Ireland are Liam Cunningham from the Saints club in Belfast, who meets a Russian opponent, Bernard Dunne from the CIE club in Dublin, who meets another Russian at featherweight, Sean Barrett from Cork, who meets a French opponent at light-welter, Michael Roche from Sunnyside in Cork meets an Italian in the light-middleweight division, and John Kiely from Limerick who is up against a French opponent at heavyweight.

Still in line for places in the European championship are Harry Cunningham from the Saints club in Belfast who also meets a Russian, Willie Wate from Holy Family in Belfast who meets a Finnish opponent at bantam, Kevin Cumiskey from Tralee who meets another Russian at welter, Ian Timms from the CIE club in Dublin at middleweight and John Kiely from Limerick at heavyweight.

Meanwhile, Prince Naseem Hamed's camp are sticking to a 2.00 p.m. weigh-in time in Detroit today, despite complaints from the handlers of WBC featherweight champion Cesar Soto.

The Mexican's trainer Manuel Diaz argues that the two ninestoners should step on the scales three hours later to comply with the World Boxing Council rules. British promoter Barry Hearn, working with Hamed, contends that the WBC regulations state that weigh-ins should take place not less than 24 hours and not more than 30 prior to the event, so it will remain at its original time.

Soto's management obviously believe that Hamed, a big featherweight, may be having difficulty making poundage, and an earlier weigh-in will give the WBO champion extra time to resume peak strength before tomorrow's fight.