Boxer John Joe Nevin has set his sights on wooing the Williams sisters at the London Olympics – after moving a step closer to a gold medal.

The young bantamweight from Mullingar has been mixing with sporting royalty in the Olympic Village and loving every minute.

Nevin had the international media eating out of his hand after beating Kanat Abutalipov of Kazakhstan 15-10 on Wednesday.

The win has Nevin just nine minutes away from an Olympic medal but he has other things on his mind as he tries to catch up with tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams – Venus envy some papers are calling it!

Speaking after he guaranteed a quarter-final date against Mexican Oscar Valdez Fierro on Sunday, Nevin revealed his wish to meet the tennis sisters.

Nevin said: “I met the soccer players Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy, which is always nice.  And they saw John Joe Nevin of course!

“I’m just hoping to meet the two Williams sisters and get a picture with them.  They’d be heroes of mine. And I met Rafael Nadal at the last Olympics. He’d be another hero of mine.

“But it’d be very nice to meet the Williams sisters.”

Asked why he wanted to meet the Williams sisters in particular, married father of one Nevin laughed: “We won’t say that for the newspapers!”

Boxing again provided the main highlights for Ireland on day five of action at the London Games as Nevin made it two wins from two.

Dubliner Annalise Murphy didn’t win either of her two races on the day in the Laser Radial class but she remains in first place overall.

There was heartache for canoeist Eoin Rheinisch, fourth in Beijing, when he made a mistake in the semi-finals of the Kayak K1 class and finished 14th overall.

Cyclist David McCann confirmed he will retire from international competition after finishing 27th behind Tour de France winner and new Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins in the men’s individual time trial.