Five English and three Irish boxers stand within touching distance of securing their places at the Beijing Olympics when the penultimate qualifying tournament resumes in Pescara on Friday.
Khalid Jafai, Stephen Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, James Degale and Danny Price will join four previously qualified England team-mates in China if they win their tough semi-final match-ups.
The fine run of form has extended to the Irish team, who will also take one of their strongest squads in years to China if John Joe Nevin, John Joe Joyce and Kenneth Egan are able to join the already qualified Paddy Barnes.
But Liverpool super-heavyweight David Price must turn his attention to April's final qualifying tournament in Athens, after his appeal against his controversial defeat to Azerbaijan's David Arshba on Wednesday was turned down.
England head coach Terry Edwards said that - while the mood in the camp is buoyant, with five of the original seven team members still in with a chance - the hard work is about to start.
Edwards said: "At this stage of the tournament, there are no weak fighters left - but I hope all our opponents will be looking at us thinking they are in for hard fights. Certainly, they are all winnable fights for us.
"If it wasn't for two controversial defeats we would have had seven out of seven fighting in the semi-finals. That is a tribute to the huge strides this team have made and how hard they have worked."
Both Jafai, who faces Moldovan Igor Samoilenco at flyweight, and Saunders - up against Ukrainian welterweight Olexandr Stretskyy - are still in their teens and were originally touted as long-term London 2012 contenders.
Edwards added: "They were originally on our development programme but were fast-tracked through and given this opportunity. Neither of them would have been on the radar in terms of Beijing a year ago.
"Billy Joe has come up to the seniors and won almost 30 bouts without defeat. His international record is already quite remarkable by anybody's standards, but for an 18-year-old it is astounding."
Featherweight Smith takes on tricky Frenchman Khesafi Djelkhir; Degale meets Hungary's Istvan Szili, and in-form Scarborough heavyweight will face difficult Ukrainian Aleksandr Usik.
For Ireland, 18-year-old bantamweight Nevin faces another Ukrainian, Maksym Tretyak; Joyce takes on Ionut Gheorghe at light-welterweight, and experienced light-heavyweight Kenneth Egan faces Ramazan Magamedau of Belarus.
Ireland's high performance director Gary Keegan said: "Spirits are high, and the lads are happy. We've performed very well over the last week, and it would be fantastic to get more guys qualified for Beijing."
More news from SportingLife.com
