Quigley’s golden moment at European U23 tests

Donegal middleweight Jason Quigley was crowned European U23 champion with a 17-11 victory over Germany’s Dennis Radovan in Kaliningra, Russia yesterday.

But Hugh Myres had to settle for silver after he was edged out by a point by Armenian star Kariun Sogomonyan.

Quigley, boxing superbly on the counter, took the first two rounds 5-3 and 5-3 and also won the final frame 7-5 to seal his second European gold.

Quigley said: “I’ve had five hard fights out here. There are grown men and Olympians at this tournament and it was very tough and competitive.

“Everything is a stepping stone for me. My focus is now on the National Seniors in Dublin in February. That will be my next step and hopefully I can do well there.

“I thought Hugh did enough to win it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, but it could have gone either way.

“He did fantastically well to win a silver medal at his first European tournament.”

Mullingar’s Myres, who boxes out of the Ryston BC in Kildare, was edged out 11-10 by Sogomonyan in an extremely close light-flyweight final.

Yesterday’s gold and silver medal wins cap an outstanding year for Irish boxing, which has won gold, silver and bronze at every Olympic, World, European and Multi-Nation tournament it has entered in 2012.