ULSTER PROVINCIAL COUNCIL IABA

Presents

YOUTH COMMONWEALTH GAMES TRIALS 2008

Dockworkers Sports, Social & Recreational Club

Pilot Street, Belfast, Tuesday 29 July at 8.00pm

 
# Round Wgt

Red Corner

 Result Blue Corner Scores
      Featherweight  
1 Semi 57kg Mark O’Hara Holy Trinity 17-12 Matthew Crawley Monkstown  
2 Semi 57kg Liam McGuinness Gleann WO Paul Hyland Gleann  
                 
      Lightweight  
3 Semi 60kg Chris Meighan Dockers WO Kieran McCoy Gleann  
4 Semi 60kg Sean Duffy Keady WO John Tracey Gleann  
                 
      Welterweight  
5 Semi 69kg Connor Coyle St Joseph’s 9-7 Michael Bustard Monkstown  
                 
         
     

All Contests 4 x 2 Minute Rounds

  
                 

 

 

 

FINALS Programme: Wednesday 30 July at 8.00pm

 
# Round Wgt

Red Corner

 Result Blue Corner Scores
      Light Flyweight  
6 Final 48kg Michael Conlan St John Bosco WO      
                 
      Flyweight  
7 Final 51kg Neil Walker Dockers

13-13

28-28

3-2J

 Andrew Watson Lurgan  
                 
      Featherweight  
8 Final 57kg Mark O’Hara Holy Trinity 16-18 Paul Hyland Gleann  
                 
      Lightweight  
9 Final 60kg Chris Meighan Dockers RSCO2 Sean Duffy Keady  
                 
      Welterweight  
10 Final 69kg David Walsh St Johns 15-16 Connor Coyle St Joseph’s  
                 
                 
         
     

All Contests 4 x 2 Minute Rounds

  
                 

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Boxers to begin trials for Indian adventure

Amateur boxing
By Eamonn O’Hara
23/07/08
 

THE spotlight may be firmly on Belfast light-flyweight star Paddy Barnes and Cavan ABC bantam John Joe Nevin as the Olympic medal hopes make their way today to Beijing on route to Ireland’s final training camp on the Pacific coast of Siberia.
But, aside from the excitement and anticipation over the Chinese Games – the first to be held in Asia since Seoul 20 years ago – Ulster boxing is also preparing for the Commonwealth Youth Games which take place in India in October.
It is now at the final pre-selection stage for the Northern Ireland team and the province’s top teenage boxers are priming themselves for trials to be held at the Dockworkers Club in Belfast next week.
At the moment, the Commonwealth Council has allocated a place in four weight divisions, though Pat McCrory, president of IABA’s Ulster Council, is continuing to negotiate for a fifth Northern Ireland place for the box-offs at Pune with Games officials.
“We are pushing for five places to be granted to us. We are guaranteed four but we believe we have a strong chance of challenging for a Commonwealth Youth medal at a fifth weight and we remain hopeful that the Council will extend our allocation to five,” said McCrory.
All ambitious prospects in the weight categories of 48, 51, 57, 60 and 67 kilos, and born in the years 1990 and ’91, are advised to weigh-in at the Dockers on Saturday between 10am and 11am ahead of the draw for next week’s selection contests.
If the form guide this season is taken as a guide to the main contenders seeking a place on the team for India, then at 51kgs it is expected that among those to weigh-in will be Dockers ABC’s Neil Walker and Liam McGuinness of Gleann. At 57, another highly-rated Gleann boxer is Paul Hyland. He should be joined in the draw by Mark O’Hara of Holy Trinity and Monkstown’s Matthew Crawley.
In the 60kgs division three of the favourites are likely to be Keady’s Sean Duffy, Jamie Kennedy of Toome and Chris Meehan from the Dockers, while at 69 kilos David Walsh of St John’s, Conor Coyle from Derry club St Joseph’s and Monkstown’s Michael Bustard are potential rivals,
With a chance to compete for a Commonwealth Youth Games medal in the autumn, Ulster president
McCrory says he expects a busy scene at the weigh-in with strong entries in all categories.
“At the end of the day this is a huge opportunity for our young boxers, a one in a million chance to go to India and try to win a medal at this international level.
“It will be a tremendous experience for any boxer who is selected when the Ulster Council meets following next week’s trials,” he said.
The box-offs begin on Tuesday, July 29 and if there are enough entries in the various weights the trial competition will continue each night at the Dockers Club through to July 31.
Three of Ulster’s top young boxers, though, will not be involved. Ulster senior finalist Ruairi Dalton of St John’s, Marc McCullough and Tyrone McKenna have been named in Ireland’s squad for the World Cadets Championship, which take place a week before the Commonwealths in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Olympic squad arrives in Beijing today before travelling to Vladivostok to finalise preparations with the Russian team. The boxing competition starts at the Workers Indoor Arena on August 9 with the draw scheduled to take place the previous day.

 
 

Seconds Out - Left Hooks
By Eamonn O'Hara and Thomas Hawkins
08/07/08


A SERIES of test contests for the Commonwealth Youth Games team, bound for India in October, will be held on July 29, 30 and 31 at the Dockworkers social club in Belfast.

“We had around a dozen lads at Sunday’s squad training session in the Monkstown club, with a few lads off on holiday,” said Northern Ireland team coach Paul Johnston. “The weigh-ins will be at the Dockworker’s Pilot Street venue on July 26 at 10am followed by the draw.”
 
 

Battle begins for Games selection

Seconds Out
By Eamonn O'Hara and Thomas Hawkins
01/07/08
 

Some of the future senior stars of Ulster and Irish boxing will be put to the test over the coming weeks.
Four and possibly five places are up for grabs on the Northern Ireland team set for the Common-wealth Youth Championships in India in October.
And the selection process gets under way in earnest at a major squad training session at the Monkstown gym in Newtownabbey this weekend.
Monkstown coach Paul Johnston has been appointed to head up the NI team in India and
will oversee team training in conjunction with international coach Michael Hawkins and the Ulster Council Coaching committee.
Over the next four weeks, a panel of Ulster’s leading youth boxers, born in 1991 or 1990 and ranging from light-flyweight to middleweight, will converge on the Monkstown base, the former home gym of Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Neil Sinclair.
Johnston said: “The event is being staged in Pune in India from October 8th to the 22nd and we’ll be able to send a team of four and possibly even five boxers to it.
“Initially our cut-off date was in July but we’ve been granted an extension from the NI Commonwealth Games Council.
“The deadline is still quite fluid, they haven’t actually tied us down and we haven’t tied them down either.
“I’m meeting with Common-wealth officials over the coming days and we’ll have a better understanding then of just when we can hold out to, before submitting the names and weights of
our boxers.
“We are keenly aware of the difficulties of organising a major tournament such as this, of the need to set deadlines and get things tied down for the smooth running of the event – and we are working on that.
“But the extension has been granted to accommodate the heavy competition programme that the boxers in Ulster were involved in and we are happy with that.”
The extension will give Ulster boxers more time to train and impress selectors and give coaches a more measured, studied assessment of which boxers are best suited for the rigours of a demanding international tournament.
“By getting this extension, we can gather a bigger pool of boxers, and allow more time to watch, assess and test,” added Johnston. “We are inviting any boxers born in 1990 or 1991 to put their names forward for inclusion in the panel and to attend all the squad training sessions.
“Attendance is crucial so that all boxers can be fully assessed and tested.
“The weight categories range from 48 kilos to 75 kilos and we want as many people as possible to attend the squad training sessions in Monkstown each Sunday (11am start).’’
“Squad training has already been under way in the Holy Trinity and Monkstown gyms, two London 2012 accredited training and holding camp facilities, and an outline Commonwealth Youth panel established.
“That’s been ongoing for two weeks. With the extension we can now open it up to make it more inclusive.
“The opportunity is now there for four boxers and one reserve to make their push for selection and I expect stiff competition for places.”
Ulster Council medical registrar and coaching official Paul McMahon added that dates had been pencilled in for testing of boxers commencing on July 31 and August 1 and the following week if needed.
“If there were four boxers in a certain weight class who after training and assessment can’t be separated then they will be tested in competition on those dates and the names of the winners go forward to the Ulster Council for ratification,” said McMahon.
“It is important also to stress that every boxer who wants to be included in the team must hold a valid British passport.
“It used to be that you could turn up at the Commonwealth Games with an Irish passport and be allowed in, but now that’s not being accepted.
“This is a new ruling by the Commonwealth Games body because of problems in other countries where foreign nationals, even Russians, have been put forward as eligible when they were clearly not.”

 

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