Jason Quigley won the middleweight gold medal at the European Under 23 Boxing Championships in Russia today.
BY CHRIS MCNULTY
JASON Quigley has won a gold medal at the European Under 23 Boxing Championships.
The 21-year old Finn Valley ABC man overcame German opponent Deniss Radovan, Quigley claiming a 17-11 points win in the middleweight final at the Sports Palace in the Russian city of Kaliningrad.
It’s the second gold medal for Quigley in major continental championships following his winning of the 2009 European Youth Championships in Szczecin, Poland. He also claimed gold in May of this year at a Multi-Nations tournament in Lithuania.
Today’s win is the perfect Christmas present for the Quigley household at The Beeches, Ballybofey – and hands Quigley a real shot in the arm ahead of his assault on the Irish Elite Senior Championships next month.
This evening’s win had Quigley at his counter-punching best. Quigley won the opening two rounds on a 5-3 scoreline to take a four-point advantage (10-6) into the final stanza.
In the final round, Quigley held strong in the face of strong advances from Radovan, with Quigley taking the final round 7-5 to confirm him as the 17-11 champion.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the win,” beamed Quigley – who had his father, Conor, and Zuar Antia in his corner in Russia.
“When I won the bronze here I was very happy to have my second European medal, but when you get to that stage you always want to change the colour and thankfully I did.”
Yesterday, Quigley defeated Russian Maksim Timofeev 15-13 in the semi-finals having entered the medals table thanks to a 12-9 win over Moldovan Victor Carapchevschii in Saturday’s quarterfinal.
Earlier in the tournament, Quigley overcame Adam Grabecz (16-3) and Deniss Kormilin (19-7).
Earlier today, Quigley’s Irish team-mate Hugh Myres lost out in his final, going down narrowly to Kariun Sogomonyan 11-10 in the light-flyweight division.
Quigley’s golden win draws to an end a superb year for Irish boxing.
“Jason produced a fantastic performance against a very good opponent,” said the team manager for the Under 23 Championships, John Finan.
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