Another Olympic boost for fighting Irish

THE Irish boxers head into the second and final week of the world boxing championships in Baku with nine members of the 10-man team still standing and the prospect of Olympic qualification looming midweek.

Six of the seven boxers in action over the weekend won their contests with the only disappointment coming in the light welterweight division where European champion, Ray Moylette (St. Anne’s, Westport), made a timid exit on the wrong side of a 19-7 against Manoj Kumar (India).

New super heavyweight Connie Sheehan (Clonmel) provided the performance of the weekend in the form of a second round victory over Faruth Kalonov (Tajikistan). After winning the first round 9-3 he forced Kalonov to take a standing count before the referee stopped the contest 2 mins 20 secs into the second.

The Clonmel man, making his first appearance outside of Ireland at super heavyweight, now awaits the Olympic and world champion Roberto Camarelle (Italy) tomorrow.

And yesterday’s session showed that the Italian might not be as invincible after taking a standing count from Jose Payares (Venezuela) in the third round.

“While I’m very happy with my performance today the next fight is going to be the big one,” Sheehan said. “I got caught with a few silly shots myself but it didn’t bother me because I knew I could take him out. After the first round Billy (Walsh) just said: right let’s take him out so I just stepped it up a gear.”

European light heavyweight champion, Joe Ward, beat Dilovarshakh Abdurakhmanov (Tajikistan) 22-4 to get his first senior world championship campaign off to the perfect start — he has been world champion at both junior and youth levels.

“The first round — he was just out of my range a bit — I had to get my timing right,” the 17 year old Moate man said. “I was two points up. I thought it could have been a bit more but you can’t control the judges.

He meets Ehson Rouzbahari (Iran) tomorrow morning.

Roy Sheahan notched his second win of the championships with a 21-17 victory over Borna Katalinic (Croatia).

“It was scrappy enough,” he said. “It was a difficult fight. He was on top of me all the time and it was hard for me to step back. I could only make the one shot at a time. As he was coming in his arms were bringing me down.”

He meets Bona Katalinic (Croatia) on Tuesday.

Michael Conlon from the Falls Road in Belfast hung on for an 18-17victory over Olzhas Sattibayev (Kazakhstan) after winning the opening round 7- 4 and losing the next two by a point.

Saturday saw big wins for middleweight Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) and lightweight David Oliver Joyce (St. Michael’s, Athy).

Joyce hammered out an emphatic 23-11 victory over Mohammad Momevand (Iran) to set up a last-32 clash with Mohammad Khaiber (Afghanistan) today while O’Neill, a European silver medallist last year, beat Glodi Eneste (Norway) 16-5 to advance.

Irish in action today

Last 32

Light Flyweight: Paddy Barnes (Holy Family) v Mark Barriga (Philippines).

Bantamweight: John Joe Nevin (Cavan) v Akhil Kumar (India).

Lightweight: David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s Athy) v Mohammad Khaiber (Afghanistan).

Middleweight: Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) v Mohamad Hikal (Egypt).

Heavyweight: Kenny Egan (Neilstown) v Jose Larduet Gomez (Cuba).