O’Neill battles back after trying time

DARREN O’NEILL will travel to the Czech Republic to relaunch his boxing career in two weeks time.

The Paulstown puncher will have been out of action for close on eight months when he gloves up for the Ustinad Laben Grand Prix on May 15 and it is only natural he can’t wait.

“It has been a frustrating period for me,” he admitted as he reflected on how a broken hand sustained the week before the national championships had deprived him of a shot at Darren Sutherland’s middleweight crown.

O’Neill had dropped down to middleweight to replace Sutherland on the Irish team for the European championships and he made it to the quarter-finals.

After losing two light-heavyweight finals to Kenneth Egan, he was all geared up for a shot at Sutherland in what was the most talked about contest in recent years. “People were saying there was never going to be a showdown like it. I was so confident of winning. I could not see myself being beaten. After all, my immediate future, if not my whole future, was hanging on it.”

The fight is still down the road, but O’Neill would not even hazard a guess as to when it might take place.

“It is going to take a while. There are no short cuts. I have been training with the High Performance Group for the past five weeks and I am hoping I will get a couple of fights in this tournament and maybe come away with a gold medal. That would be nice.”

Darren Sutherland, who won his third gold of the season at the GeeBee tournament in Helsinki a couple of weeks ago has been named on another Irish team to compete in the Chemistry Cup in Germany next week, while Eric Donovan has been named in both squads despite the fact there is just a day between the tournaments.

Donovan reclaims his featherweight spot after David Oliver Joyce picked up a hand injury. The national senior featherweight champion joins Kenneth Egan and welterweight champion Roy Sheahan on the injured list.

“Right now we are hoping to have all three back in action for the EU championships in Dublin in June,” High Performance director Gary Keegan said. “We are in the fortunate position we have a huge depth of talent at our disposal and that is very healthy.”