Olympic champion Katie Taylor had little difficulty in sweeping aside the challenge of Martina Schmaranzova of the Czech Republic at the European Olympic qualifiers in Turkey.

Taylor triumphed on a unanimous decision and will face Denmark's Yvonne Rasmussen in the quarter-finals of the lightweight division on Wednesday.

Cork middleweight Christina Desmond caused a major upset in Samsun by ousting top seed Nouchka Fontijan of the Netherlands in the preliminary stage.

Desmond also advanced to the quarter-finals and is just two wins away from securing a much-coveted spot at Rio 2016.

Ceire Smith comprehensively accounted for Hungary’s Virginia Barankas in the flyweight division.

In the men's competition, Belfast flyweight Brendan Irvine was too good for Germany's Hamza Touba, winning on a unanimous decision.

The No 1 seed produced a big third round to see off his opponent.

However, Dean Walsh is out after losing a split decision to top seed Lorenzo Sotomayor of Azerbaijan in their light-welterweight bout.

Walsh won every round on one judge's card, but lost the other two 29-28.

Irish team manager Joe Hennigan said the coaches thought that Walsh had done enough to get the verdict over the No 1 seed.

Super-heavyweight Dean Gardiner lost a unanimous decision to Azerbaijan's no 3 seed Mahammadrausl Majidor.

London 2012 Olympian Darren O’Neill, David Oliver Joyce and Michael O’Reilly are in action on Tuesday.

The top three boxes in the male weights - the finalists and winner of box-offs between the beaten semi-finalists - and the finalists in the three Olympic weights for women - flyweight, lightweight and middleweight – qualify for Rio 2016.

Results

Women's:

51kg Ceire Smith (Ireland) beat Virginia Barankas (Hungary) 3-0

75kg Christina Desmond (Ireland) beat Nouchka Fontijan (Netherlands) 3-0

60kg Katie Taylor (Ireland) beat Martina Schmaranzova (Czech Republic) 3-0

Men's:

64kg Lorenzo Sotomayor (Azerbaijan) beat Dean Walsh (Ireland) 2-1

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) beat Hamza Touba (Germany) 3-0

91kg+ Mahammadrausl Majidor (Azerbaijan) beat Dean Gardiner (Ireland) 3-0