Eoin McGarrell
FIFTEEN Donegal boxers go between the ropes today in Eglinton for finals at the Ulster 9 Counties Boys/Girls Championships.
Letterkenny ABC’s Matthew Hanlon is in the final of the Boy 15 57kgs class as he takes on Dale Kelly from the St Joseph’s club. Hanlon lost out last year in these championships, held at Tyholland, but is bidding for glory at Eglinton ABC.
Finn Valley ABC ace Eoin McGarrell is one of the big hopes in the finals. McGarrell gloves off against Oisin Treanor of Emyvale in the Boy 12 33kgs decider, a week after he defeated Coleraine’s Darius Parke on a split decision in the semi-final.
Donegal’s newest boxing club, the Bluestack ABC in Ballybofey, has two boxers in finals. Charlie McDonagh is up against Jude Gallagher in the Boy 12 31kgs final, while in the Boy 13 39kgs final Owen J Ward takes on Brendan O’Hagan from the Bishop Kelly club. The Bluestack club is led by Eunan Devenney and Eamon McAuley, formerly of the Twin Towns ABC. Last weekend, Ward recorded a split decision win over Tyler Quinn from St Paul’s in his semi-final.
Bundordan ABC is well represented with three boxers in finals action: Adam Clarke meets Jake Tucker (St John Bosco, Newry) in the Boy 12 42kgs final having beaten Ruairi Killoran from Carrickmore via a technical knockout in the third round of the semi-final; Gerard Oates takes on Lisburn’s Thomas Orr in the Boy 11 33kgs and at 27kgs there is an all-Donegal final between Bundoran’s Jamie Moore and Cian Moran from the Illies Golden Gloves.
Chloe McDaid and Lee Harkin push the Golden Gloves representation up a couple of notches. McDaid meets Grainne Gallagher (Two Castles) in the Girl 11 44kgs final and Harkin meets Caolan McIntyre in the Boy 13 50kgs final. McIntyre hails from the St Canice’s club in Dungiven and will meet an in-form Harkin, who defeated Dockers puncher Conall Ross in the semis.
Dunfanaghy’s Sean Kelly – who had a convincing 3-0 win over Connor Leneghan in the semi-finals – is in search of Ulster glory, too. Kelly squares up to Castleblayney’s Colin Maguire at Boy 13 36kgs level, while in the Boy 11 44kgs final his Dunfanaghy team-mate Bryan Boyle takes on St Malachy’s man Jamie-Lee Ward.
Meanwhile. Jesse Callaghan takes on Jon McConnell in the 31kgs final while Jamie Pearson from St John Bosco is up against Churchlands’ Ryan Doherty.
A host of Donegal boxers have been handed walkover wins, including Raphoe’s young starlet Cody Lafferty, the Ballindrait girl taking home the Girl 11 31kgs title, with Shannah Tiffoney (Bundoran, Girl 11 57kgs), Martin Sweeney (St John Bosco, Donegal town, Boy 11 66kgs), Charles Delaney (Boy 12, 29kgs), Chantel Dixon (Carndonagh, Girl 12 48kgs), Shane Gillespie (Bundoran, Boy 12 54kgs) and Jessica Clarke (Carndonagh Girl 13 42kgs) all confirmed as winners of their respective divisions.
Last weekend, there were semi-final defeats for Tom Ward (Bluestack), Oran Wallace (Dungloe), James Devlin (St Bridget’s) and William J Callaghan (St Bridget’s).
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