Sutherland left to fly the flag after Athy pair lose

DARREN SUTHERLAND was left shouldering Ireland’s hopes at the world boxing championships in China last night after the defeats of featherweight Eric Donovan and welterweight Roy Sheehan.

Donovan lost 40-25 to Simion Viorel of Romania in his bid for a place in the quarter-finals, while his club-mate Roy Sheehan was edged out on count-back after both boxers were tied at 21 points apiece at the end of a contest that was spoiled by the referee who issued 12 cautions.

That leaves Navan-based middleweight Sutherland flying the tri-colour in a difficult quarter-final today (11am Irish time) against second-ranked Russian Matvey Korobov with the incentive of a medal and a semi-final berth tomorrow on offer.

Sutherland has impressed in his two victories to date but the Russian will be a stiffer test. Southpaw Korobov is a classy operator, with a punch in both hands, plenty of movement and a solid defence, and his backroom team expect him to go all the way in these championships.

Meanwhile, Donovan gave a characteristically brave display against the Romanian Olympic quarter-finalist but a slow start ended his world championship hopes. Down by eight points after round one, there was little hope Donovan could work his way back against the experienced and physically strong Viorel.

Donovan got going in the second round and his all action style made a real scrap of it in the third. Romanian observers gave Donovan the fourth round, although his chances were gone by then and the judges were favouring Viorel.

Donovan has had an injury interrupted year and is only back full-time training for 13 weeks. Despite that he won gold medals at multi-nation tournaments in Albania and Finland and earned his place at the Championships. His display justified the selection and the experience will be of enormous benefit to the 20-year-old Athy man.

An impressive performance against Coatian Katalinic Borna on Tuesday saw Roy Sheahan through to the last 16 in his division on a count-back after drawing 22-22.

Yesterday against Magomed Nurudinov (Belarussia) he forced a count-back, but this time it favoured his opponent.

In a tight and tense affair, Sheehan’s disappointment will be compounded by the knowledge that this is a fight he was capable of winning. He worked hard to get back into the contest after falling behind but the contest got scrappy from round three which favoured the shorter Nurudinov.

After the fight Irish head coach Billy Walsh said: “That was a heartbreaker. While Roy wasn’t accurate enough in his punches, he was very close to victory. We are doubly disappointed because we felt that this was a bout he could have won. To lose on count- back is tough because he came from behind and was more aggressive for most of the fight. He still showed that he can compete at this level and was one hit from the quarter-finals. He is new to the world stage and showed a lot of heart. There is a knack to producing your best on the biggest stage, that knack comes with experience.”