Box Cup win re-ignites Moore’s Olympic hopes

WINNING an Adidas Belt at the Box Cup Tournament in Hamburg may not have compensated James Moore for the loss of his national senior crown but the performance, coupled with the defeat of his conqueror, Henry Coyle, in Helsinki over the weekend, has re-ignited his hopes of Olympic qualification.

Moore, who dethroned Neil Gough in 2001, was favourite to lift the welterweight title for a fourth successive time when he was defeated by the relatively unknown Gesala man, a deserving winner on a bad night for the defending champion.

“He was very down afterwards. In fact we all were,” Jim Moore, father and coach to James, admitted. “He had been contemplating pulling out of the Adidas Box Cup in Germany but now he is very glad he went.”

Things looked ominous when he lost 28-23 to England’s Sam Webb in his opening contest.

He went on to hammer out a 36-28 victory over all-action Lithuanian welterweight Ronaldas Jasevicioas and it was then he declared himself back and ready for anyone.

On the other side of the draw Webb took a hammering from the favourite for the title, Atjom Merjasow, boxing for Germany, and Moore went into the final as the underdog.

“I am going to hurt him,” was the message to his father as he geared up for the final and he proved true to his word as he went out and took the German apart and left the referee with no option but to stop the contest in the second round.

“Now he just wants one shot at the qualifiers,” his father said. “Obviously he won’t be going to the Europeans. Henry (Coyle) has earned that - he deserves it.”

Coyle will travel to Pula, Croatia, for the championships, from February 19 to March 1, and whether or not Moore gets his chance will depend on how the 23-year-old Mayo man fares there.

After that there will be opportunities for welterweights in Plovdiv in March and Baka, Azerbaijan, in April.

“I know a lot of people would like to see him get his chance as he just had an off night at the national championships. Nations like England won’t allow their boxers seeking Olympic qualification to box the national championships, fearful something like this would happen,” his father said.

Moore threw a lot of punches that night, landed a lot but they lacked power and Henry Coyle turned in the performance of a lifetime to strip him of the title.

Coyle’s first international trip as champion was to the GeeBee tournament in Helsinki at the weekend where he lost his opening contest to Aki Selesmaa of Finland, 34-27.

Otherwise it was productive trip for the six-man Irish team.

Light heavyweight Kenneth Egan repeated his gold medal-winning performance of last year with short route victories over Kenny Anderson of Scotland (Round 3) and Miroslav Krestul of Lithuania (Round 3).

Bantamweight Eric Donovan (St Michael’s, Athy) heralded his arrival on the scene by taking a gold medal with wins over Italy’s Mario Pianti (36-27) and James Ancliff (Scotland) in Round 2.

Paul Hyland (Golden Cobra) won the silver at flyweight while Andrew Murray from Cavan won a bronze medal in the lightweight division.

Katie Taylor (St Fergal’s ABC, Bray) became Ireland’s first female gold medallist when she not only won the lightweight title, but was named Best Boxer of the Tournament at the Norway Box Cup in Oslo where Fermoy man, Pat Flynn, was Team Manager and her father, Peter Taylor, was coach.

Fergus Turner (St Ibars/St Joseph’s) beat Anwar Shafaie (Holland) when the referee stopped their welterweight semi-final with the Irishman leading 38-18 on points and went on to lose to Kay Tverberg (Norway) in the final in the same competition, while young John Joe McDonagh from the Brosna club in Mullingar lost to Nikita Dubunin of Norway at light welterweight on countback (88-76) after they were tied at 22-22 at the final bell.