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On a day when the national anthem of the Ukraine, Belarus and Hungary was each heard two times, Rustamhodza Rahimov (54kg) and Wilhelm Gratschow (57kg) were the toast of Germany after both qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games through bronze medal "box-offs" at the 1st AIBA European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Roseto Degli Abruzzi, Italy on Saturday.

Thirty-three-year-old Rahimov, a bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics and 2003 world championships in the 51kg class, and a silver medallist at the 2005 world championships in the 54kg division, beat the Ukraine's Maksym Tretyak 26:16. Tretyak, a 2004 Olympic Games quarterfinalist, missed out on becoming the fifth Ukraine boxer to qualify at this first qualification event in Europe.

Rahimov's counterpart Gratschow, 25, beat a distraught Stephen Smith (ENG) 18:13 in a tense bout for the third qualifying spot in the 57kg division.

The other two qualifiers were England's Billy Joe Saunders, who beat Pavol Hlavacka (SVK) 20:10 and Andranik Hakobyan (ARM), who beat Istvan Szili (HUN) 25:19.

A total of 26 boxers from 16 countries qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games at this event. Another 25 places will be offer at the 2nd AIBA European Olympic Qualification Tournament in Athens, Greece from April 7-14.

Olympic Qualified countries at 1st AIBA European Olympic Qualification Tournament

Ukraine: 4
Hungary, Belarus, England: 3
Germany: 2
Poland, Russia, Ireland, Moldova, Azerbaijan, France, Romania, Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Armenia 1

A total of 154 athletes from 50 countries have now qualified for the Olympic Games boxing competition.