Updated 23.35

ADAM NOLAN SURVIVED a last-round scare against Carlos Sanchez Estacio to make it three wins from three for Ireland’s boxers in London.

There were some signs of nerves as Nolan made his Olympic debut in the last 32 of the men’s welterweight division but the two-time national champion did enough for a 14-6 win against his Ecuadorian opponent.

Fighting out of the blue corner, Nolan used his superior height and reach to keep Estacio at bay and was comfortable with an 11-6 lead at the end of the second round.

Estacio refused to back down without asking some questions of the Enniscorthy man though and landed far cleaner shots in the last round, rocking Nolan as he waitied anxiously for the bell.

The action in the final round wasn’t reflected on the judges’ scorecards which scored it 3-2 in Nolan’s favour to see him through to the last 16.

“I’m very happy with the win obviously but I’ve performed better than that,” Nolan told Will Downing afterwards. “I’ve made life hard for myself.”

“He didn’t make it easy but in saying that, I didn’t make it easy on myself either. I could’ve made life a lot easier for myself in the last round. I’d a five-point lead going into the last round and I won the last round by one which I suppose wasn’t very fair.

“I took a lot of shots on the elbows and I soaked a lot of pressure up but I got tired. Probably that was partially to do with the nerves getting in there, I got tired very easily.

“Hopefully I can box with a freer spirit the next day and focus more on my performance than on the outcome.”

Nolan will be back in the ring on Friday night when he faces Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia for a place in the quarter-finals. Zamkovoy beat Qiong Mai Maitituersun of China 16-11 tonight.