Gold for Sutherland as Irish shine in Zagreb

DARREN SUTHERLAND put the finishing touches to a memorable week for the Irish boxers at the multi-nations tournament in Zagreb, Croatia, by stopping local hope Pol Urgoc Sanjin in the third round of their middleweight final to claim the gold medal.

There were silver medals for Kenneth Egan, David Oliver Joyce, Johnnie Joyce and Irish Examiner Junior Sports Star Ryan Lindberg, who also made it through to their respective finals while light fly Paddy Barnes and flyweight Conor Ahern arrived home last night with bronze medals. Kenneth Egan had to withdraw from his light heavyweight final with an injured hand and will now miss the multi-nations tournament in Poland.

This was Sutherland’s first international assignment since he suffered a career-threatening eye injury against Russia in the National Stadium last May and he came through with flying colours.

After impressing in his semi-final against the experienced Italian Ivano Del Monte on Friday, he took on the tough Croatian who was backed by a partisan crowd for his final bout. Sutherland got on top early on and, as they entered the third round, it was clear that the 20-point rule was about to be invoked and when he went 31-11 up, the inevitable happened.

Gary Keegan, the IABA’s Director of High Performance, said. “It is now quite clear that he lost none of his talent or skills during the long lay-off and, if anything, he is now stronger both mentally and physically than ever before.”

There was something of a mystery surrounding the defeat of newly crowned national featherweight champion, David Oliver Joyce, who beat his opponent around the ring before losing 27-32 to the Croatian Mirsad Ahmeti in what must have been the hometown decision to beat all hometown decisions.

The 20-year-old Mullingar man who boxes out of the successful St Michael’s ABC in Athy, gave his man two standing counts and the Croatian also got a public warning, yet Joyce came out on the wrong side of the scoring. “It was just an amazing result,” Gary Keegan said. “It was quite obvious that David Oliver was well on top and yet the verdict went the other way.”

David Oliver’s cousin, John Joe Joyce, lost 16-36 to Frenchman Gean Gomis in the lightweight final while Ryan Lindberg lost 21-34 to a very good Russian, Sergey Vodo Pyanoov, in the bantamweight final.