England's amateur stars are chasing history on Thursday with guaranteed medals on the line at the 14th World Boxing Championships.
Only three Englishmen have won medals at this level before but now five stand one bout away from joining them.
Four of the five - Joe Murray, Bradley Saunders, Frankie Gavin and Tony Jeffries - have also secured berths at next summer's Beijing Olympics.
David Price goes too if he wins his super-heavyweight quarter-final.
In addition, inexperienced Belfast light-flyweight Patrick Barnes has claimed Ireland's first Olympic berth and will square off for a medal against Chinese star Zou Shiming.
Sunderland light-heavyweight Jeffries completed his remarkable comeback from injuries and selection problems to defeat Ramazan Magomedov 18-6 and reach the last eight.
"I could have gone for the 20-point stoppage in the third but I settled for a nice work-out"
Jeffries admitted: "It hasn't sunk in yet. But now I want to win a medal."
Earlier, Birmingham's Commonwealth Games lightweight gold medallist Frankie Gavin ensured Great Britain their strongest Olympic boxing squad for 16 years with a 21-10 win over Ramal Amanov of Azerbaijan.
"After I got to him in the first round I really felt my power coming through. I have got to give a big thanks to all my funding and support which has really made the difference," said Gavin.
Liverpudlian Price produced another powerful performance to beat Macedonian Primislav Dimovski 20-4 and reach the last eight. Only the semi-finalists qualify for the Games from his category.
Price, who also claimed a Commonwealth gold last year, said: "I could have gone for the 20-point stoppage in the third but I settled for a nice work-out. It's been good to get some rounds in."
While there was considerable success for the English contingent on Wednesday, Irish duo Kenneth Egan and Eric Donovan failed to join their team-mate Barnes in the quarter-finals.
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And late on Tuesday, Scotland's Stephen Simmons and Ireland's John Sweeney and Darren Sutherland were defeated.
Durham light-welterweight Saunders will get England's medal push under way when he faces Alexis Vastine of France in the first session on Thursday, while Murray, like Barnes, faces a tough Chinese challenge in the shape of Yu Gu.
Gavin hopes to make his skills count against Onur Sipal of Turkey, Jeffries meets tough Kazakh Yerkebuian Shynaliyev and Price will take on Italy's Roberto Cammarelle.
The AIBA World Boxing Championships are the first and main qualifying event for the 2008 Olympics.
The four Englishmen already qualified for Beijing is a huge improvement on 2004, when only Amir Khan secured an Olympic spot. And hopes remain high that the British team will win more spots at the two remaining European qualifiers in Italy in February and Greece in April.
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