Sheahan turns on power after slow start

ROY SHEAHAN, St Michael’s (Athy), got his World Championship campaign off to the perfect start when posting an impressive 15-10 victory over Carl Hield (Bahamas) in Baku yesterday and his next opponent, Borna Katalinic (Croatia) is a man he has beaten twice previously.

But Tommy Murphy, President of the IABA, insisted they can’t take anything for granted.

“We were happy enough with today’s performance,” he said. “Roy had a nervous start but that was only to be expected and he was down a point at the end of the first round.

“He followed his man and kept working to the body, stepping it up in the second round when he went four points ahead.

“His opponent had to come forward in the third round and that suits Roy’s style. He was able to use his height and his reach to pick him off.

“The Croatian looked strong enough in his contest and, like I said, you can’t predict what’s going to happen. But Roy will get better as the tournament progresses and now that he has his first contest out of the way his confidence will be high.”

The first of Ireland’s current European champions, Ray Moylette, goes into action today against Arturs Ahmetovs (Latvia) and the Westport light welterweight just can’t wait.

“I like boxing on the big stage,” he said. “But to arrive on the big stage you have to box to your potential and I am ready for that. My aim is to go out and box well — enjoy it — and hopefully I can do enough to qualify for the Olympics.”

Moylette, who won a world youth title in Mexico in 2008, got a shot at the European championships when Irish champion Ross Hickey was not available to travel to Ankara in the summer and he made the most of it.

He finished that campaign in style, beating the two big medal favourites, Hajiliyev Heybatulla (Azerbaijan) in the semi-final and then the two-time silver-medallist and Commonwealth Games champion, Thomas Stalker (England) in the final. But even that was not enough to guarantee him his place on the team for those world championships as he had to face Hickey in a box-off.

“There was a lot of pressure on me going into that contest,” he admitted. “Obviously my European title would be tarnished if I got beaten.”

It was one of the best contests ever seen at the National Stadium with Moylette coming from behind in the last round to win 15-13.

A repeat of that performance today should see him through to meet either Valentino Knowles (Bahamas) or Manoj Kumar (India) for a place in the last 16 on Sunday. He needs three wins to be certain of Olympic qualification.

“That’s the target,” he said. “I don’t want to be on the scene training hard for the next five years. It’s tough going. Nobody sees the background stuff that goes into it. The preparation is unbelievable. I have been out of the country six or seven times this year at training camps and competitions. I can’t see myself putting it in for the next five or six years.”