Irish on course for gold rush

Ireland’s boxers are on the brink of a gold rush at the 40th European Championships in Belarus.

Sat, 08 Jun, 2013 - 01:00

BOXING: Bernard O’Neill

London 2012 silver medallist John Joe Nevin and bronze medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan, along with Jason Quigley, are all through to today’s finals and are guaranteed at least silver after blasting their way through yesterday’s semi-finals in Minsk.

It was a special day for Cavan BC bantamweight Nevin as he celebrated his 24th birthday with a last-four win, but Jason Quigley stole the show with a stunning victory over current world champion Ievgen Khytrov of the Ukraine.

It was crucial that the Donegal man, the 2009 and 2012 European Youth and U23 champion, took the first round against the number one seed in what turned out to be an epic 75kg battle.

And the Finn Valley BC orthodox, despite one or two hairy moments, did just that, using his counter-punching ability to edge the first before setting up a thrilling third round after claiming the second.

Ivegen was lashing in some big shots throughout this encounter, but Quigley, who has grown in stature at this tournament, stood up to the test.

The world champion remonstrated about the verdict, but the Ecuadorian, German and French judges thought differently. They scored it 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 to the Irish Elite champion.

“You know you have to pull it out of the bag. That there was the best performance of my life,” said Quigley. “I’m being honest; that was an easier fight than the German because there was so much pressure against the German.”

Barnes, the number two seed, got Ireland off to a perfect start with victory over Salman Alizada of Azerbaijan.

The Belfast light-fly, detonating multi-punch combos throughout, got a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) over the 2011 European champion, but admitted he was worried about a nosebleed.

“It was bleeding heavily so it was, but not as heavily as it was against the Hungarian, thankfully,” he said. “It required a lot of work from the doctor in the corner to stop it bleeding. I kept telling the doctor come on there’s only three seconds to go and he kept laughing at me.

“I was gobsmacked to see him [Alizada] ranked ahead of me in the world rankings. He was a current champion, but that’s because I wasn’t there [Barnes was injured for the 2011 Europeans]. Still, it’s great to get a win against a European champion.”

Nevin handed himself the perfect birthday present with a unanimous decision over Russian bantamweight Vladimir Nikitin.

Boxing mostly off the back foot, Nevin used his slick counter-punching to subdue most of Nikitin’s advances.

The Cavan BC ace will meet Mykola Butsenko of the Ukraine in today’s 56kg decider. Nevin will be favourite to collect gold as Butsenko was hammered by Nikitin in the semi-finals of the European U23 Championships in Russia last year.

“I had to start quick, get the first two under my belt. I think he got the last round. He was piling on the pressure alright. I knew once I won the first two he was going to come out like a roaring lion looking for a stoppage,” said Nevin, “Again, I started fast and that was the aim. The Russians are all good boxers, the third ranked, the fourth, they’re all good.” Belfast flyweight Michael Conlan completed a perfect day for Irish boxing with a split decision (30-27, 30-27, 28-29) over Russia’s Ovik Ogannisian.

Switching from his normal orthodox stance to southpaw and back throughout the three-rounder, Conlan landed the majority of the cleaner shots to en route to a split decision win.

Boxing begins at 12pm today (Irish time) with ten finals to be decided.

Live coverage: RTÉ 2

Today’s gold medal opponents

49kg light-flyweight

Paddy Barnes (Holy Family BC, Belfast, Ireland) v David Ayrapetyan (Russia)

Ayrapetyan: 29 (born in Baku)

Record: Russian champion 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

European champion 2006

Silver medallist at 2009 World Championships in Baku.

Bronze medallist at London 2012.

Minsk results: Beat Hovhannes Danielyan (Armenia) 3-0, bt Manuel Cappai (Italy) 2-1, bt Jack Bateson (England) 3-0.

52kg flyweight