McMonagle advances but Sweeney bows out of Championships

Irish super heavyweight Cathal McMonagle advanced to the quarter finals of the European Union Boxing Championships after his opponent Kurban Gunebakan from Turkey was retired by the ref following a cut over his right eye in the fourth round at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight.

But heavyweight John Sweeney is out of the tournament despite a brave showing against reigning 91Kg champion John Michael M'Bumba from France.

Gunebakan was ahead by ten points in the final round but was hit by a solid right from McMonagle and the referee stopped the contest. McMonagle, from the Holy Trinity Club in Belfast, will now meet Mohammed Samoudi of France in the last eight on Thursday.

Sweeney (Dungloe Donegal) bowed out of the tournament despite putting in a storming finish against reigning EU 91Kg champion M'Bumba.

Sweeney had M'Bumba quite literally on the ropes in the fourth racking up ten points in the final round but just ran out of time in one of the fights of the tournament so far.

Meantime,reigning Irish welterweight champion Roy Sheahan will meet Latvian Dmitris Sostaks in the 69Kg quarter final on Thursday.

Sostaks beat Holland's Orhan Qzturk today (12-8) to set up the 69Kg last eight clash with Sheahan from the St Michael's Athy club.

The Latvian has a similar counter punching hit and move style to Sheahan which should make for an intriguing bout in two days time.

The red corner proved to be the corner to be in during this afternoons session with four of the seven winners boxing out of "le coin rouge" as described by a French coach.

Spain's Mariano Hilario,Romania's Radu Zarif, and Xavier Noel of France, were the exceptions however, with Zarif overturning a 7-0 first round deficit to see off the challenge of Poland's Lukasz Polcyn.

Six Irish boxers will be vying for at least a bronze medal when the European Union Championships resume at the National Stadium in Dublin tomorrow.

Paddy Barnes, Ryan Lindberg, Carl Frampton, Conor Ahern Eric Donovan, and John Joe Joyce, are all facing difficult quarter final bouts against some

of the top boxers in the world.

Donovan, of the St Michael's Athy club, will meet Domenico Valentino of Italy in the last eight.

Donovan beat the Italian-who is going for his fourth EU gold on the trot- when both men met in a junior international at the Stadium in 2003.

But since then Valentino has won bronze and silver medals at the World and European Championships, on top of winning three European Union gold medals.