All four Irish juniors box clever in Six Nations tourney

ALL four Irish boxers won medals at a Six Nations junior tournament in Rome last weekend.

The haul of two gold, one silver and one bronze justified the High Performance policy of only sending competitors with definite medal chances to the major tournaments.

And Director Gary Keegan is hoping to build on this success at the European junior championships in Estonia next month. David Oliver Joyce underscored his medal potential for that event by collecting the bantamweight title in Rome, an addition to his national junior, intermediate and senior titles.

The Athy teenager endured a tough semi-final against an Algerian opponent with the computer needed to decide the matter (21 to 19) before going on to win the final by a decisive 12-point margin.

The other gold medal went to national senior flyweight champion, Carl Frampton from Belfast, who won on countback after he had tied with his English opponent after four close rounds.

Paul Duncliffe from the Sunnyside club in Cork won silver while Patrick Ward from Galway won bronze at welterweight.

Keegan reserved special praise for Joyce.

“He is one of those boxers who has everything you could hope for. He has all the punches in the book. But he has to be nurtured.

“What he does not have is that physical and mental maturity that comes with age. You just would not like to send him in against a boxer who is 25 or 28.

He has to be protected. You don’t send 17 or 18 year olds in against boxers 10 years older. It is all about mental and physical development.”

With the extended panels there is keen competition for places on international teams and the selection for the European junior championships will be interesting.

And it will be particularly interesting at flyweight where both the national junior and senior champions will be in contention.

“It is a healthy position to be in,” Keegan said. “But it is not going to be easy to win medals in Estonia. Two years ago I attended the European junior championships in Poland and the standard was absolutely phenomenal.”