Left Hooks

North holding their own in Indian games

Northern Ireland’s Youth squad got off to a flyer at the Commonwealth Games in Pune, India yesterday.
“We had two good wins today, which is a great boost on day one of the competition,” said NI coach Paul Johnston yesterday.
Sunday’s draw threw up some tough pairings for the five-strong NI team. But the first two into action, light-flyweight Michael Conlon (St John Bosco) and Derry welter Conor Coyle (St Joseph’s) came up trumps.
“Michael was always ahead against Pethias Chisenga and won 9-6 in the end,” said coach Michael Hawkins.
“It was a great performance against a very tough Zambian.
‘‘In contrast, Conor Coyle was behind against Scotland’s Steven McAllister up until the last minute
‘‘That was when he started catching his Scottish opponent with several right hands, which helped him to a 10-5 victory,” added Hawkins.
The wins pitches the two lads into the last-eight.
Immaculata’s Paul Hyland is in action this evening against Mohamad Bin Safaudin (Malaysia), for a place in the featherweight bronze medal positions.
Dockers fly Neil Walker received a bye and boxes the winner of tomorrow’s Tanzania v South Africa clash.
Keady lightweight Sean Duffy is into the last-eight shake-up and will face Ryan Smith of Scotland tomorrow.
“The lads are doing well and adjusting to 30plus temps and 70 per cent humidity,” added Johnston.

Talent needs nurtured

Seconds Out
By Eamonn O’Hara & Thomas Hawkins
07/10/08
 

Even for the very best, making a safe transition from the youth, teenage grades to the daunting senior ranks can be a hit-and-miss affair.
Many promising young boxers have struggled at this juncture, their hopes of a successful switch often cruelly dashed.
That painful scenario is very much on the minds of Northern Ireland team coaches as a five-strong panel prepare to jet of to Pune in India to compete in the Commonwealth Youth Games.
Medal expectations are there alright but, equally importantly, wins and valuable international experience are viewed by the NI coaches as the cornerstones of future success.
Light fly Michael Conlon (St John Bosco), flyweight Neil Walker (Dockers), feather Paul Hyland (Immaculata), lightweight Sean Duffy (Keady) and welter Conor Coyle (St Joseph’s, Derry) make up the NI team.
“These lads are just embarking on a journey. They’re 17 and 18 years of age now and the lessons learned from national levels and international level across the world is that it’s nurture, not torture at this age,’’ said NI coach Paul Johnston.
“Overall, we have a strong team. I think the last time we sent a team to this event they came home with two bronze and a silver. That was back in 2004 in Australia.
“Michael Hawkins was coach then and he is this time, too.
“That said, there’s a World Youth Championships taking place around the same time and some of our top kids, our number one boxers, will be at that and that is a loss for us.
“But every other nation attending will be in the same predicament. I would hope for one medal and a couple of wins per boxer.
“London 2012 is a long-term target for these kids, but before then it’s Delhi and the Commonwealth Games Seniors in 2010.
“These lads are just moving towards the senior ranks now, they’re starting out on a journey that will hopefully end with them being in a position to challenge for 2010 places and medals.
“So, at this stage of their careers, it’s about nurturing their talent, bringing it on, watching it develop.’’
Just how seriously the Ulster Council and coaches are viewing the Commonwealth Youth challenge is reflected in the introduction of an intensive, full-time residential training regime over the last four days to complete the schedule.
This has been used in the past by senior Ulster teams and mirrors the IABA’s very successful high-performance approach to competition.
The Balmoral Hotel in Black’s Road has been the base for the NI squad with team building training stints at the Trinity gym.
Another morale-booster for the team has been the contribution of boxing gear from Boxing Equipment Belfast, based in Smithfield.
“We have had squad training since July,’’ said coach Hawkins.
“We had trials to help select the best team, not just on their performance in the trials but on their commitment with an eye to the future, obviously with Commonwealth Seniors 2010 in mind.
“The squad has trained every weekend since then at the Holy Trinity and Monkstown gyms.
“To finish off we have based them in a full-time residential training camp for the last lot of days, so they’re going to be prepared fully, focused and sharp.
“The mood in the camp is very good, morale high.’’
NI lightweight prospect Sean Duffy agrees with that assessment.
The 17-year-old, who works as a panel beater at Haughey’s car-body repairs in Keady, has been appointed captain of the side.
“The weekend training camps have brought all the team on, there’s a great spirit in the camp,’’ said Duffy.
“We’re all hoping for gold, aiming for the highest award, but mostly this is about building international experience at these Games.”
The Commonwealth Youth tournament runs from October 12 to 18.

DALTON BOUNCES BACK IN STUNNING STYLE
Belfast flyweight Ruairi Dalton has demonstrated that he has the temperament and the firepower of a champion, able to bounce back superbly from crushing defeat.
The St John’s clubman lost out narrowly and controversially in the finals of this year’s Ulster Seniors but the teenager reaction was “to take it on the chin and move on”.
Dalton certainly moved on in style impressing hugely in a major international round robin series in July featuring the cream of Ireland, England Germany and France.
This week Dalton looks ahead to another major challenge.
With seven of his Irish team-mates he will target international medals at the World Youth Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Dalton is joined by Oliver Plunkett duo Tommy McCarthy and Tyrone McKenna and Tyrone McCullagh (Illies Golden Gloves).

Full Irish team:

51kg: Ruairi Dalton (St John’s Belfast)
54kg: Tyrone McCullagh (Illies GG)

57kg: Tyrone McKenna (Oliver Plunkett Belfast)
60kg: Ray Moylett (St Anne’s Westport)
64kg: Jamie Kavanagh (Crumlin BC)
69kg: David Joyce (St Michael’s Athy)
75kg: Bernard Roe (Dublin Docklands)

81kg: Thomas McCarthy (Oliver Plunkett Belfast)
 

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.

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.”