BOXING Elite National Senior Championships Finals

Eric Donovan produced a stunning first round to emerge victorious from his all St Michael's lightweight final with David Oliver Joyce at the Elite National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin last night.

Donovan, who was beaten by Joyce in the 2007 featherweight final, was 11-2 ahead at the end of round one after forcing his opponent into a standing count.

Joyce managed to reduced the arrears to 12-6 at the end of the second and looked en route to completing an amazing comeback after moving to within three points of his Athy team-mate one minute into the third.

However, Donovan upped the tempo once again in the final 40 seconds to post a 17-10 win, a victory that also secured the boxer of the Championships award.

Meanwhile, John Joe Nevin, who admitted that he was very disappointed with his performance tonight, claimed his third senior belt in a row following 7-5 a decision over 2005 senior finalist Derek Thorpe of the St Aidan's club in Wexford.

Nevin, a semi finalist at the 2009 AIBA World Senior Championships took a low tempo first round 3-1, but Thorpe leveled it at 3-3 after registering the only scores of the second.

The Wexford man, who was written off by the bookies at 10/1 to win this bout, then appeared to be on the brink of causing the shock of the Championships after going 5-3 up in the third. However, Nevin scored the next four points of the 54Kg decider to retain his title.

Meanwhile, U/21 champ Gary Molloy added the Irish flyweight title to his collection with a hard-fought victory over Conor Ahern. Molloy, who boxes out of the Moate club in Westmeath, withstood a late
surge as Ahern reduced a 6-4 deficit to one point in the final thirty seconds.

However, the newly crowned champion showed enough composure and ring craft in the final 30 seconds to claim the 51Kg belt that lay vacant following the withdrawal of defending champion Declan Geraghty because of injury.

World Youth champ Ray Moylette also won his first senior belt this evening following an impressive win over Ulster senior champion Stephen Donnelly. The St Anne's Westport won the first 3-0 and was 5-2 ahead at the end of the second before taking advantage of Donnelly chasing the bout to add another five points to his tally in the final 60 seconds.

Holy Trinity super-heavyweight Cathal McMonagle staged the comeback of the Championships to beat Tommy Sheehan of the St Michael's Athy club. Sheehan was 10-5 up in the third and final round of this encounter, but McMonagle, a three times senior champ, restored parity at 10-10 before landing the winning score in the final 10 seconds.

World and European champion Katie Taylor beat Ukranian Julia Tsyplakova 19-4 in a special bout this evening. The Bray woman beat Tsyplakova 10-2 on Friday.

Friday's finals saw Ken Egan crowned Irish senior champion for the tenth year in a row following a points win over Belfast light heavyweight Tommy McCarthy.

The Neilstown southpaw, who was pegged back to 3-3 in the second, was handed an 8-5 decision in a repeat of the 2009 final which the Olympic silver medalist won 9-5.

The win matched Irish boxing legend's Mick Dowling's (1968 to 75) run of winning eight senior titles in a row in the same weight category (bantamweight).

And Egan, who won his first two belts at middleweight, also matches Jim O'Sullivan's run of ten non-consecutive senior title wins between 1980 and 1990.

O'Sullivan, one of the great gentlemen of the noble art who won his titles boxing out the St Patrick's club in Enniscorthy, presented Egan with his belt and trophy from inside the ring.

Dowling, a two times Irish Olympian ( Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972), who was once ranked 3rd in the World, hailed Egan's incredibly run.

He said: "I would like to congratulate Kenneth on a fantastic achievement. After three and a half decades it was time that somebody did it and I'm delighted for him. I think he can now go on and win eleven in a row - he's that kind of boxer."

Beijing Olympian John Joe Joyce beat defending champion Willie McLaughlin 12-9 to claim the welterweight belt from a cracking 69Kg contest which was level at 3-3 at the end of the first and 6-6 at the end of the second.

Joyce, from the St Michael's Athy club, finally began to put some daylight between himself and McLaughlin in the third, despite the best efforts of the Donegal man in a final 60 seconds which saw some heavy ordnance exchanged on both sides.

Meanwhile, Jason Quigley, a senior debutant with a European Youth gold medalist aged 18, showed enough composure in his final with Darren O'Neill to suggest that he has a big future ahead of him.

However, O'Neill is a vastly experienced boxer and showed great skill and patience to keep building on his first round lead and post a 6-1 win to secure his second 75Kg crown on the trot.

Belfast dynamo Paddy Barnes meanwhile, added his fourth senior title to his name in as many years following an 8-1 victory over Jimmy Moore of the St Francis club in Limerick.

Tyrone McCullough claimed the vacant featherweight title following a 3-1 victory over James Fryers in a tactical 57Kg decider. McCullough got ahead and stayed ahead all the way down to the final bell of this all Ulster decider.

Defending champion Con Sheehan beat former champ Alan Reynolds in a hard hitting heavyweight final, a repeat of the 2009 clash which Sheehan, the current European Union champ, also won.

Debbie Rogers and Kelly Harrington recorded the first two Elite Women's finals wins of last night, Rogers stopping Rebecca Meaney in round two and Harrington beating Jessica Lyons 10-2.