Boxing: Donovan aims to take golden opportunity as Irish dominate
Irish light-flyweight Paddy Barnes lands a punch on English opponent Thomas Stubbs as he cruises to victory at the European Championships in Moscow yesterday.
ST Michael's, Athy lightweight Eric Donovan believes that Ireland's Elite boxing squad have the talent to make a major impression at the 2010 European Senior Championships in Moscow.
Donovan and Paddy Barnes both guaranteed themselves at least a bronze medal apiece following quarter-final wins at the Ice Palace in the Russian capital yesterday.
The verdicts arrived 24 hours after Ken Egan, Darren O'Neill and Tyrone McCullagh chalked up a hat-trick of last-eight victories, meaning that Ireland will be taking home at least five bronze medals from the 39th edition of the biennial tournament.
To put those medal-winning performances into context, before the Irish team travelled to Moscow just five Irish boxers had won medals in the continental deciders this century. However, in the space of 24 hours this week, the Ireland 2010 squad matched that total having guaranteed themselves five podium finishes.
Precise
Barnes hammered English light flyweight Thomas Stubbs 10-2, a solid display of defensive work combined with some precise shots sealing his second victory over Stubbs since last August.
And Donovan followed that up with an impressive 10-4 verdict over Hungarian puncher Miklos Varga in a repeat of their 2007 World Senior Championships duel, which Donovan won in Chicago.
However, 2009 World Senior bronze medalist John Joe Nevin had to settle for a top-eight finish yesterday following a surprising 7-1 reversal to English bantamweight Gamal Yafai.
The President of the IABA, Dominic O'Rourke, and Irish team manager Des Donnelly hailed this week's victories as magnificent and Donovan reckons there's more to come. The Irish senior champ also insisted that he has no fears meeting 2007 AIBA world featherweight gold medalist Albert Selimov of Russia tomorrow.
"I'm looking forward to meeting the Russian lad. I beat the current World champion (Domenico Valentino of Italy) already this year and I have no fears about Friday's semi-final, said Donovan.
"I'll make no prediction about the semi-finals on Friday, but we're out here to win make no mistake about it. We want to win the entire thing and we have the talent to do it. We'll take some beating."
Today is a rest day at the championships.
- Bernard O'Neill
Irish Independent
