Five Irish boxers into EU Championship Finals today

IRELAND WIN FIVE MEDALS AT EUROPEAN UNION BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS

23rd June 2007

Ireland won a hat-trick of gold medals at the 5th European Union Championships which concluded with eleven thrilling finals at the National Stadium in Dublin today.

Irish captain Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland, and Roy Sheahan had the fans dancing in the isles as Ireland finished on top of the gold medals won table.

Carl Frampton and Cathal McMonagle also claimed silver on an incredible day for Irish boxing.

Italy and France matched Ireland with all three countires winning five medals in total. But Ireland landed more gold medals than any other nation competing in Dublin.

Welter weight Roy Sheahan won Ireland’s first gold of the tournament after his 69Kg clash with Xavier Noel was stopped in the fourth because an injury to the French man.

The opening round of this contest was more like a guarded game of chess with both boxers scoring just one point a piece.

Sheahan found his range with two solid rights in the second and then landed another thudding right near the end of the round to go 5-3 ahead.

But Noel reduced the deficit early in the third and Sheahan, a two times national senior champ, took a standing count after a body shot as the French man leveled the bout at 7-7.

The fight was in the balance in the fourth and final round but Sheahan took  gold after the decider was stopped because of cut over Noels right eye with both boxers locked at 10-10.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland was next into the ring and the St. Saviours OBA Dublin man didn't let his country down with a controlled display of boxing against England’s number one James Degale.

The opening round was a see-saw affair but Sutherland edged ahead by two points with a fine left upper cut close to the bell.

The Irish middleweight - ranked third in Europe - extended that margin to three points by the end of the third, but Degale landed two swift lefts to leave move to within one point of the Irishman.

Sutherland found an extra gear to extent his lead to five points in the third, but the fourth was still in the balance and Degale decided to throw caution to the wind.

However, Sutherland landed two fine upper cuts near the end of a top class four rounder en route to landing Ireland’s second gold and recording his third win on the trot over the Englishman.

Irish captain Ken Egan produced a controlled performance to dominate Romanian Constantin Bejenaru, a silver medal winner from last year’s EU Championships in Hungary.

Egan (Neilstown, Dublin) who has now won two golds at EU level (and one silver and bronze) was boxing well within himself in this decider and when he was required to

step a gear he did just that to take the opening three rounds (7-3,14-9,20-30) before being handed a 23-17 victory.

Carl Frampton was the first Irish boxer in the ring against Khedafi Djelkhir of France, but had to be content with silver despite a brave performance from the Ulster man.

Frampton, from the Midlands White City club in Belfast was leading 13-12 at the end of the second round, but a thrilling toe-to-toe third saw Djelkhir-who was presented with the boxer of the tournament award-reverse the opening two rounds to lead by five points at the bell.

Djelkhir, a bronze medal winner at the 2004 EU Championships, then got the better of another furious exchange in the fourth forcing Frampton into a standing count en route to winning the first gold of the tournament for France.

Super heavyweight Cathal McMonagle was involved in the final bout of the Championships, but had to settle for silver versus Roberto Cammarelle of Italy after being beaten 20-10.

Cammarelle, an Olympic and World Championship bronze medalist, took all four rounds against the Donegal man, who boxes out of the Holy Trinity club in Belfast.

But it was a brave performance from McMonagle who lit the fuse under these Championships with a sensational edge of the seat win over Romanian Cristian Ciocan on Friday night.

Gary Keegan, who directs the highly successful Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s High Performance Programme, said he was delighted with some of the performances from the eleven man Irish squad at the Championships.

He said: "There have been some fantastic performances for Irish boxers at these Championships and the medal wins speak for themselves.”

"We were in against some of the top amateur boxers in the world at this tournament and the team performed with distinction at the National Stadium this week.”

"We are thrilled with the medal wins and it has been an outstanding week for Irish amateur boxing."

High Performance coaches Billy Walsh and Zuar Antia were in the Irish teams corner at the National Stadium.

The 2008 European Union Championships will be held in Poland in 2008. 

5th European Union Championships Finals Results: Saturday June 23rd

(Scores at end of each round in brackets)

48Kg: Light Flyweight: Kelvin de la Nieve (Spain) lost to Pal Bedak (Hungary) 10-20 (1-3,3-8,9-15)

51Kg: Flyweight: Hafid Bouji (Germany) beat Salim Salimov (Bulgaria) 20-7 (4-0,8-3,13-3)

54Kg: Bantamweight: Denis Makarov (Germany) lost to Detelin Dalakliev (Bulgaria) 7-16 (1-3,4-8,5-14)

57Kg: Featherweight: Carl Frampton (Ireland) lost to Khedafi Djelkhir (France) 27-37 (8-6,13-12,20-25)

60Kg: Lightweight: Eugen Burhard (Germany) lost to Daouda Sow (France) 7-16 (13,4-7,4-13)

64Kg: Light Welterweight: Marcin Legowski (Poland) lost to Ionut Gheroghe (Romania) 6-17 (3-4,4-11,6-14)

69Kg: Welterweight: Roy Sheahan (Ireland) beat Xavier Noel (France) RSCI4 (1-1,5-3,7-7)

75Kg: Middleweight:Darren Sutherland (Ireland) beat  James Degale (England) 23-19 (7-5,13-10,20-5)

81Kg: Light heavyweight:Constantin Bejenaru (Romania) lost to Ken Egan (Ireland) 17-23 (3-7,9-14,13-20)

91Kg: Heavyweight: Helias Pavlidis (Greece) beat Clemente Russo (Italy) 13-8 (1-1,4-2,7-5)

Medal Table

Bulgaria

51Kg: Salim Salimov (Silver)

54Kg: Detelin Dalakliev (Gold)

69Kg: Dimitar Stilianov (Bronze)

Croatia

81Kg: Mario Sivolija (Bronze)

91Kg: Vedran Djipalo (Bronze)

England

48Kg: Darren Langley (Bronze)

54Kg: Joe Murray (Bronze)

64Kg: Bradley Saunders (Bronze)

75Kg: James Degale (Silver)

France

48Kg: Nordine Ouballi (Bronze)

57Kg: Khedafi Djelkhir (Gold)

60Kg: Daouda Sow (Gold)

69Kg: Xavier Noel (Silver)

75Kg: Jean Michael Raymond (Bronze)

Germany

51Kg: Hafid Bouji (Gold)

54Kg: Denis Makarov (Silver)

60Kg: Eugen Burhard (Silver)

Greece

91Kg: Helias Pavlidis (Gold)

Hungary

48Kg: Pal Bedak (Gold)

64Kg: Gyula Kate (Bronze)

91+Kg: Csaba Kurtucz (Bronze)

Ireland

57Kg: Carl Frampton (Silver)

69Kg: Roy Sheahan (Gold)

75Kg: Darren Sutherland (Gold)

81Kg: Ken Egan (Gold)

91Kg+: Cathal McMonagle (Silver)

Italy

51Kg: Vicento Piccardi (Bronze)

60Kg: Domenico Valentino (Bronze)

75Kg: Ivano Del Monte (Bronze)

91Kg: Clemente Russo (Silver)

91+: Roberto Cammarelle (Gold)

Poland

57Kg: Michal Chudecki (Bronze)

64Kg: Marcin Legowski (Silver)

91Kg: Krzysztof Zimnoch (Bronze)

Romania

64Kg: Ionut Gheroghe (Gold)

81Kg: Constantin Bejenaru (Silver)

91+Kg: Cristian Ciocan (Bronze)

Slovakia

54Kg: Rudolph Dydi (Bronze)

81Kg: Mario Sivolija (Bronze)

Spain

48Kg: Kelvin de la Nieve (Silver)

60Kg: Alejandro Rodriguez (Bronze)

Turkey

51Kg: Kadri Kardel (Bronze)

57Kg: Yakup Kilic (Bronze)

69Kg: Adem Kilicci (Bronze)

81Kg: Bahram Muzaffer (Bronze)

FOR MORE INFO

Bernard O'Neill
Public Relations Officer
Irish Amateur Boxing Association
Ph-086 057 9558/085 763 3090
bernard.oneill@oceanfree.net
www.iaba.ie