Hi °C | Lo °C 
Paddy Barnes claims to be the first boxer to tweet news of his victory from inside the Olympic ring after reaching the last 16 of the light-flyweight competition with a 15-10 win over Cameroon's Thomas Essomba.
The Belfast 25-year-old told his 8,000 followers: "Job done from the Olympic ring. Paddy Barnes - bringing you closer to the action," later adding: "Think I'm the first boxer to tweet from inside [the] ring."
Barnes is engaged in a competition with team-mate Michael Conlan to take pictures and autographs with as many famous athletes as possible in the Village, many of which they have posted on their respective Twitter accounts.
Barnes joked: "It's been desperate getting chased round the Village by all these athletes wanting autographs and pictures. But I have to stand there and give it to them all because I don't want to be ignorant."
When pressed for the identity of the most famous athlete who had asked for his autograph, Barnes, who had carried a sign at the opening ceremony asking for sponsorship, replied: "Probably [Usain] Bolt."
Like Conlan and John Joe Nevin before him, Barnes could reflect on a solid start against Essomba, who barged forward in crude fashion and was constantly picked off by the sharp work of the Belfast man, who won bronze in Beijing.
The man who beat him in China, Zou Shiming, could await Barnes in a repeat semi-final, but the 25-year-old insisted revenge was not on his mind.
Barnes added: "I'll fight anybody but I don't want to look too far ahead otherwise I could lose my next fight. It's good to ease into the competition and now that my first fight's out of the way I can improve on it."
