O’Neill and Barnes keep gold medal hopes alive

DARREN O’NEILL and Paddy Barnes will represent Ireland in the finals of the European senior boxing championships in Moscow today after more outstanding performances from Billy Walsh’s squad in the semi-finals at the Ice Palace yesterday.

O’Neill gave the Bulgarian middleweight, Mladen Manev, a lesson in the finer points en route to a comprehensive 6-0 victory while Paddy Barnes turned in the most controlled performance of his career to outpoint the Spanish light flyweight, Kelvin de la Nieve 6-3.

There was bitter disappointment for Olympic silver medallist, Kenneth Egan, who allowed a 7-1 lead to slip away and lost 11-9 to French light heavyweight, Abdelkader Bouhemia.