Birmingham flyweight Khalid Yafai is intent on emulating Amir Khan and becoming a teenage Olympic boxing medallist after sealing his place on the plane to Beijing on Friday.
The 19-year-old Yafai came back from seven points down and the brink of disqualification to squeeze past Moldova's Igor Samoilenco in the penultimate qualifying tournament in Pescara.
And London middleweight James Degale took the number of British qualifiers to date to six when he clambered off the canvas on his way to defeating Hungary's Istvan Szili 17-9.
Victory capped a remarkable rise for Jafai who until recently had been considered a 2012 prospect. He said: "I'd seen Amir do it when he was even younger so that gave me encouragement.
"My aim now is to follow Amir and get a medal. I'm really proud to have qualified but the job's not done and I'm not just going to China for a holiday."
Cool Yafai's hopes of counter-punching his way to success had been wrecked within the opening minute when he was deducted two points for slapping, and when he was warned again he stood on the brink of being thrown out.
But trailing 3-10 at the midway point, Yafai threw caution to the wind and attacked his experienced opponent, who was penalised two points himself in the third as Yafai closed the gap.
Sensing a Beijing berth was within touching distance, Yafai forced Samoilenco to take a standing count in the fourth and finally went ahead with 30 seconds remaining to earn his place in China.
Degale finally produced the goods on the big occasion as he skated to victory over the Hungarian, despite being dumped on the canvas after being caught off-balance in round two.
Teenage welterweight Billy Saunders suffered an agonising 15-13 defeat to Ukrainian spoiler Oleksandr Stretskyy but can still qualify if he wins a bronze medal box-off on Saturday.
The highly-rated Hoddesdon youngster struggled to show off his best work against an opponent who was twice warned for bending low. Saunders will face Slovakian Pavol Hlavacka in a second chance.
Liverpool featherweight Stephen Smith is also looking ahead to a bronze medal box-off after being tactically withdrawn after one round against Frenchman Khesafi Djelkhir on Friday.
The classy Frenchman was a cut above and had raced into an 11-1 lead when Smith's corner took the wise decision to save him for Saturday. If he beats German Wilhelm Gratschow on Saturday he will still qualify.
But there is no immediate second chance for Scarborough heavyweight Danny Price, who performed well but was beaten by top-class Ukrainian Alexandr Usik 15-9, and must now look towards April's final qualifier in Athens.
Cavan 18-year-old John Joe Nevin became Ireland's second Olympic qualifier after a magnificent 32-16 success over Maksym Tretyak of Ukraine.
The inexperienced Nevin made the most of his chance in a stunning third round when he roared back from a 9-11 deficit to take a 10-point lead going into the final round.
But Ireland team-mate John Joe Joyce was beaten 20-25 by Romanian Ionut Gheorge, and experienced light-heavyweight Kenneth Egan went down 17-13 to Ramazan Magamedau of Belarus.
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