Sutherland leads Irish Beijing charge

THREE Irish boxers bid to secure Olympic qualification in Athens later today.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland, light heavyweight Kenneth Egan and the young Mullingar light welterweight, John Joe Joyce, are all in semi-final action in this Olympic Qualifying tournament in the Greek capital. Victory guarantees progression to Beijing.

Sutherland, has the best chance of joining light fly, Paddy Barnes, and bantamweight, John Joe Nevin, in China.

With three places available at middleweight, should he lose this evening, he will enter a box-off with the other beaten semi-finalist for the third spot.

But Sutherland isn’t considering that safety net: “I wanted to take it just one fight a time and I wanted to win every fight. That’s what I did and that’s why I am into the semi-finals and I am one fight away from Olympic qualification,” he said.

If he reproduces Wednesday evening’s performance in beating Zoran Mitrovic (Serbia) 38-17 he will be difficult to beat. Today’s opponent, Victor Cotiujanschii (Moldova) was far from impressive in an one point win over Kaya Savas (Turkey) who could have won an untidy contest.

No Irish boxer is more dedicated than light heavyweight Kenneth Egan. He has won eight Irish senior titles and a fistful of gold medals from various, tournaments including two from the European Union championships. Six week’s ago at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Pescara he won bronze but he needs either gold or silver from those tournaments to get to Beijing.

While there are reports of some thrilling spars between the pair, his natural style of boxing is in total contrast to that of Darren Sutherland.

“I don’t throw that many punches but when I throw a shot I want to score,” he said and proved against Daniel Kool (Holland) 13-4 on Wednesday.

He had beaten Kool previously in Germany and, coincidentally, he also has a decision over today’s opponent Gottlieb Weiss from Germany.

Weiss is also quite technical and impressed beating Elnur Gadirov (Azerbaijan) 22-11 though the loser tired in the last round.

John Joe Joyce faces another German in the experienced Harun Sipahi. He was part of the German Olympic team in 2004 but has since suffered severe shoulder problems which required corrective surgery.

That could explain a little rustiness in his performance on Wednesday when he beat a disappointing Belarussian, Yauheni Ramashkevich, (19-7).

Said High Performance Director Gary Keegan: “We looked at a recording of the fight. Maybe there is a slight doubt about his fitness. Fitness will not be a problem with our lads. Johnny (Joyce) has come on in leaps and bounds in recent months and we are now getting four very good rounds out of him. His fitness kept him in the fight on Wednesday when it appeared the judges had something against him.”

Add Keegan: “After the EU championships last summer we targeted three Olympic places and I am confident that we will achieve that now.”

Olympic team manager, Jim Walsh, was full of praise for the boxers.

“In Pescara we had 42 nations competing. That was the equivalent of a European championships and we came away with one gold and two bronze medals. Out here 190 boxers weighed in on Monday and, again, we have three through to the semi-finals.”