BY CHRIS MCNULTY
MICHAEL Gallagher will go into a box-off for a place at the Youth Olympics after missing out on a medal at the World Youth Championships in Sofia.
The Finn Valley heavyweight was beaten 3-0 by Cuba’s Yordan Hernandez in the quarter-final. Gutsy Gallagher lost out on a unanimous decision to the highly-rated Cuban at the Armeec Arena.
Gallagher might have been beaten by the impressive Hernandez, but he certainly didn’t surrender tamely.
Liam Brereton, the Irish team manager in Sofia, tweeted: “Cuban might of won the fight but Gallagher won the crowd Proud to be irish after that gave a super human effort Cuban will be sore 2morrow.”
Gallagher left everything behind and landed some of those stinging blows that have become his forte.
Despite defeat, all is not lost for the Kinletter man, who could yet qualify for the Youth Olympics.
The losing quarter-finalists will go into box-offs, where they will attempt to win through to the Youth Olympics, which are held in China in August. The draw will be made after Tuesday’s weigh-in and the box-offs begin later on Tuesday.
Gallagher had recorded two wins to take him into the quarter-finals in Bulgaria, overcoming Canadian Evagelos Frangos and Britain’s Connall McDonald.
On Thursday, he won by a split decision against Frangos in a bout he always had control of. Gallagher was the dominant force in the contest and he was similarly impressive against McDonald on Easter Sunday, with two of the judges scoring it 30-27 in his favour.
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