Paulstown boxer Darren O’Neill was one of five Irish boxers to claim gold medals at the recent Ostrava Grand Prix, conquering tall Russian Evegeny Dishchenko in Saturday’s final.
Fighting at light-heavyweight, the reigning Irish middleweight champion came through in a low-scoring, cat and mouse battle and said he was delighted to win gold.
In the absence of light-heavyweight champion Ken Egan, O’Neill stepped up to 81kg, a weight he has fought at successfully in the past, and won his semi-final 8-0 against Belarussian Sergei Kuzmin before taking the final 1-0.
“The Russian boy was young, only 21, but he was very good and he has won European titles at underage level and at 6”6’ or 6”7’ he had a great height advantage,” O’Neill told the Advertiser this week.
“He was the tallest boxer I have ever fought and I expected him to come out and use his height advantage and keep me at arm’s length so I would have to keep moving my head underneath, but it didn’t work out that way.
“He came out with a high guard and I said ‘grand’ because I knew I had a bit of maturity over him. In fairness he threw a lot of punches.”
O’Neill has made it clear that winning a third national championship in 2011 is his immediate priority with an Olympics looming in 2012, but said the gold medal in the Czech Republic was a great boost.
“With any sport you have to be practising at a high level to compete at a high level and for me, I am looking to the nationals and this was one of those tune up fights I needed because you have to be in the ring fighting.”
He knows he faces a tough challenge to retain his 75kg national title, with his main rival, European Youth champion Jason Quigley, taking gold in that weight division in Ostrava.
“I’m training away at the minute and working hard, working on different aspects of my game and as it gets closer to the championships I will pick up the levels of intensity,” he said.
