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Boxing trio stay on medal trail
Callan boxer Clare Grace, who is one fight away from making the womens 60kg national final
HOPES of boxing gold for Kilkenny were boosted when three local fighters made it through a gruelling weekend at the 2012 Elite Senior Championships.
Darren O’Neill made the best possible start to his quest for a fourth successive national boxing title.
The Paulstown boxer opened the defence of his middleweight (75kg) title in winning style, beating Stephen O’Reilly in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
O’Neill, who has taken a break from teaching to concentrate on training for the Summer’s Olympic games in London, was in control at the National Arena when the referee stopped the fight in round three when the score was 11-8 in favour of the Kilkenny southpaw. Leading 8-5 going into the final round, O’Neill moved into the final four after his opponent was retired with a cut over his left eye.
O’Neill had admitted that he will have to step things up for his semi-final this Friday against Conrad Cummings, a fighter he beat on his way to winning the title in 2011.
“I boxed poorly, but a win’s a win,” he said. “I’m still in it, but will have a difficult fight against an opponent with a tight defence.”
However, his club-mate Jamie Dowling’s interest in the finals is over after he lost his second fight inside 24 hours.
Dowling, fighting in the men’s welterweight (69kg category) made a brilliant start to the competition by beating Arklow’s Fergal Redmond 16-6 in the preliminary round on Friday. However, his involvement ended on Saturday after a 4-11 loss to Athy’s Roy Sheahan, a former European and Irish senior champion.
There could well be another national title heading for Paulstown, however. Lauragh O’Neill has been given a walkover in her semi-final of the women’s 81kg division.
Hoping to join her in the gold rush will be Callan’s Clare Grace. Fighting in the women’s 60kg category, Grace beat Joanne Barclay in the preliminary round. She will now fight Patricia Roddy from the Bray club this Saturday, with a place in the final against Carla Wright at stake.
Both fights will be part of busy card of boxing across Friday and Saturday. Bouts begin at 7pm each night.
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Weather for Kilkenny
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
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mjon3105
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 12:21 PMSo congratulations to Clare Grace on a magnificent 15-8 points victory in last night's Irish Elite Senior Championships FINAL win over Patricia Roddy. Clare was well on top from start to finish.. a promise of greater things to come as long as womens boxing in Ireland is adequately funded and potential future stars like Clare are granted the opportunity to take part regularly in international competition. A credit to coach Jimmy Walsh, her family and to Callan BC. A title too for Paulstown's Lauragh O'Neill though alas as in the semi final no opponent for her to defeat in last night's final.
mjon3105
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 03:39 PMGreat to see comprehensive coverage of boxing. Good luck to Clare Grace tonight though I believe that she and Patricia Roddy,(a member of the Bray BC like Katie Taylor) , are actually competing at 69 kg rather than at 60kg so the winner is not likely to meet Clara Wright .Clara appears to have won the 60kg title without a fight since Katie Taylor is on an international training camp duty in Georgia. As Clare defeated Joanne Barclay last week when Patricia defeated Laoise Traynor (also of Bray) do Clare and Patricia not meet in the Final of the 69kg?. I thought there were only four boxers entered in that weight class? In any event another fine win last week for Clare who did so well in the 2010 European YouthJuniors in Calais winning a medal against Europe's top boxers.Well done and Good luck in future...Mike
keendavid
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 07:04 PMgood luck to you all !
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