Quigley looks to end good month on high

JASON Quigley, crowned national U21
welterweight champion at the start of the month, aims to finish it by punching his way through to December’s Irish Intermediate Championship finals when the box-offs resume at the Stadium on Friday night.
Finn Valley’s ace stormed into the quarter-finals at his weight with a 14-point winning margin, achieved inside two rounds, to stop Richard Balfe of Macroom in last weekend’s preliminaries.
Quigley is one of five Donegal boxers in the spotlight later in the week.
Fellow Irish U21 champion Stephen O’Reilly of Twintown, Carrigart’s Noel McCarron and Michael O’Neill of Dungloe are all through to the last eight of the middleweights. Martin Lynch of Illies Golden Gloves bids on Friday for a place in the 71 kilos semi-finals set for December 5.
Quigley and two other Ulster title challengers, Dockers light-welter James McDonagh and Niall McGinley of Bishop Kelly, who also boxes at 64 kilos, face two potential tests in the space of 24 hours. If they get through on Friday their semi-finals will take place the following night.
McDonagh, a recent Ulster finalist, advanced following a second round stoppage of Jamie Quigley (St Paul’s). McGinley won an all-Ulster club scrap, defeating Jimmy Upton (Holy Family).
O’Reilly, who triumphed in the U21 decider against Olympic’s Brian Brosnan, had nine scoring shots to spare over Crumlin’s Mark Carlyle in the prelims, McCarron beat Richard Macy (St Saviours) by eight points, O’Neill by the same impressive margin against Southpaw’s Carl Joyce. Their quarter-finals are scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Ulster boxing is strongly respresented on Saturday’s Stadium bill, with semi-finals pencilled in for four divisions (51kgs, 54kgs, 57kgs and 60kgs). Cavan’s David Nevin goes in at 51 after an excellent performance at the weekend to outclass quarter-final opponent Anthony O’Brien (Baldoyle), 11-1.
Meanwhile, Katie Taylor (left), the world lightweight champion, got her title defence off to a sensational start at the 5th AIBA Women’s World Championships in China yesterday, with a 20-3 preliminary round win over Australia’s Emma Carruthers.
The Bray star, who also holds the European and EU Championship titles, will take on Danusa Dilhofava of the Czech Republic tomorrow morning at the Ningbo Youngor Gymnasium in Ningbo City. Another victory would take Taylor into the quarter-finals. Dilhofava was also convincing in her prelim contest, out-scoring Gonca Yilmaz of Turkey 12-0.