Ward retains title and eyes senior glory

JOE WARD, the 2009 and 2010 AIBA World Junior and World Youth champion, claimed his second Irish Open Youth Championships title in a row at the National Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.

The 17-year-old, who boxes out of Westmeath’s Moate BC, had his hand raised in victory after John Joe McDonagh’s corner retired their man in the second round of the light-heavyweight final, with Ward 11-1 up.

The teenager has confirmed he will enter the Elite Senior Championships, beginning at the National Stadium on Friday, a move that could see him meet Ken Egan, who will be aiming for an unprecedented 11th title on the trot.

The Elite Championships have a massive significance this year as the winners will be on the Irish team going forward toward the World Senior Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Azerbaijan in September.

There will be one final Olympic qualifier for European male boxers in Istanbul in April 2012, while Katie Taylor’s Olympic qualifiers will be at the May 2012 World Championships in China.

Meanwhile, the Nevin cousins were celebrating on the double in the opening two finals of Saturday’s Open Youth Championships.

Michael Nevin staged a comeback to overturn a 2-0 deficit versus Antrim’s Colin McKay and win 4-2 after landing four points without reply in the final round.

Patrick Nevin then claimed 52kg glory on a countback. The Cavan BC flyweight, a brother of Irish champ John Joe, was trailing 2-1 after being tagged with a right by Limerick’s Myles Casey, but restored parity in the second. Both boxers exchanged blows to leave the scoring at 3-3 before Nevin got the nod on a 7-6 countback. Casey had his brother, Willie “Big Bang”, the current European super-bantamweight champ, working his corner during the fight.

Ryan Dervan, meanwhile, caused the shock of the semi-finals on Friday after he beat favourite Anthony Coyle, and the Galway welterweight followed that up with a double countback win over Christy Joyce on Saturday.