Sutherland wins silver in Ukraine

Irish boxers claimed one silver and three bronze medals at the Maripol senior international tournament which concluded in the Ukraine today.

Reigning European Union Champion Darren Sutherland had to settle for silver this afternoon after his 75Kg final with Ukrainian number one Ivan Senai was stopped in the third round.

Overall it was another very positive tournament for Ireland however, with Sutherland landing silver and Roy Sheahan, Conor Ahern and Darren O'Neill all winning bronze.

St Michael's Athy welterweight Sheahan,also a reigning EU champion, had been due to meet Russian number two Bataz Vafaed

in the semi finals on Saturday but was withdrawn because of an injury to a knuckle in his left hand.

"Roy was withdrawn as a precaution and he has already had an X-Ray on the hand and he has gotten the all clear", said High Performance Director Gary Keegan.

"We are very pleased with the squads performances in the Ukraine against world class opposition in extremely warm conditions

as was over thirty five degrees under the ring lights."

The IABA will announce their squad for next Octobers world championships in Chicago-which will also act as an Olympic qualifier-in the coming weeks, and coach Billy Walsh said that they will have some tough decisions to make.

He said: "The Ukrainian tournament will be our last major competition before Chicago and the lads performed very well out here and once again we are bringing medals home.

"The Irish team surprised a lot of people in the Ukraine and we received a lot of compliments for our performances which is very pleasing.

"This Ukrainian tournament is part of our preparations for the World Championships in Chicago and we will have some tough decisions to make in the near future."

Irish captain Ken Egan, who helped Ireland to a hat trick of gold medals at last months European Union Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ryan Lindberg, Cathal McMonagle,John Joe Joyce, David Oliver Joyce and Eric Donovan were also competing the Ukraine.