Ballymena's Stephen Donnelly has negotiated safe passage through the preliminary rounds of the men's 69k in Rio today.

His performance earned him a unanimous decision in all three rounds as he picked off Algerian Zohir Kadache with a tidy performance, finishing with a score card of 29-28, 30-26 and 30-27.

The Irish fighter, backed by a combination of visiting and local fans, looked comfortable throughout weaving his way through a barrage of indiscriminate hooks flung by the Kadache in the first round and jabbed his way to a comfortable win in the succeeding rounds.

The victory returns the focus of Irish boxing to what the ring after a chaotic opening chapter to the national team’s Rio tournament. Donnelly will box against Mongolia’s Byamba Tuvshinbat in the next round on Thursday.