Joyce to star in championships as Gezim proves a big hit

Brendan Mooney

The young Athy lad has experience beyond his years having won six

national juvenile titles before winning last year's national junior title and then this season's national under-21 title.

He gets the two-day semi-finals under way tonight when he boxes the Limerick bantamweight Colin Moynihan from Andy Lee's St Francis ABC.

If he gets over that hurdle, he will face Corkman Paul Duncliffe (Leeside/Lough) in a final that will be a repeat of the under-21 decider.

One of the biggest comebacks of the season has to be the return of Rylane heavyweight Tom Murray, who has had a sensational route to the semi-finals.

After cruising to victory in his opening contest, he knocked out one of the favourites, Rob Corbett, in the quarter-finals with the biggest punch of the weekend. Tomorrow (Saturday) night he will face John Sweeney (Dungloe) in the second of the semi-finals,

The Donegal man is not short on experience. He was a finalist back in 2002 and last year he lost to Patrick Coyle (Geesala) in the final of the under-21's. He beat Michael Fuohy (St Colman's) in the semi-finals. Murray was an outstanding

under-age boxer under Dan Matthews at the Blarney club, opted out and returned last season to train with his brother, John, under Dan Lane at Rylane. Rylane, who have a great record at intermediate level, took five boxers to the championships and all of them performed very well.

David Barrett was one of the more impressive, losing narrowly to the exciting Portlaoise welterweight, Oisin Kelly. John Paul McDonagh (St Paul's Waterford) is an exciting lightweight.

He was beaten by John Joe Joyce on count back after a stand-off in the final under-21's but he holds several national titles including last year's junior title.

He will find a very strong opponent this weekend in Thomas Dillon (Drimnagh) who was a finalist last year. The championships have seen the arrival of a very exciting middleweight in Disha Gezim (St Matthews). Last season he made a big impression as a big hitter, so much so that the IABA went delving into the records to see if he had boxed in his native Lithuania.

They discovered he had not boxed before and now he could not only win the title here he boxes Sean Shevlin (Dealgan) tomorrow night but he could be a big threat to the senior boxers when those championships get under way.