Lee claims scalp and final place

ANDY LEE claimed another big scalp last night at the European Union Boxing Championships in Spain when he out-pointed the Polish champion and Olympic qualifier, Robert Gniot, 18-6 to qualify for tomorrow’s final.

The Limerick middleweight forced a standing count in the first round when he caught Gniot with a perfect right hook and then landed a bit right over the top and the Pole never got into the fight after that with Lee picking him off with some accurate punches.

It was his second victory over an Olympics-qualified boxer. In his opening contest he beat Serdan Ustuner of Turkey 26-16.

The Turk not alone qualified for Athens but is a world junior silver medallist and actually beat Lee in the European junior championships in 2001, so that was a huge turnaround.

Now assured of a silver medal he will meet the Sydney Olympics’ silver medallist, Marian Simion of Romania, in tomorrow’s finals. Simion is also a European gold medallist.