All eyes were on local man Darren O’Neill at the National Stadium on Friday last. Darren lost out to Olympian Kenny Egan in the 2005 and 2006 finals at light heavyweight before moving down to middleweight.
He was defeated last year by the Olympic medallist and now professional Darren Sutherland. This year he was intent on taking the honours and did so in style. He won this year’s 75kg title 6-1 against Stephen O’Reilly from the Twin Towns club. Darren’s defence on the night was impeccable and he was also awarded player of the tournament. Speaking to the Kilkenny Advertiser Darren said he was delighted with his win. “Winning the title was fantastic, all the hard work and training has paid off, I trained very hard over Christmas. While I’ve been unlucky in the past it was brilliant to take the title this year.”
While other boxers had taken time out to train, Darren could not. “I’ve been studying hard the past few months for my college exams, so between that and training it has been tough going. However not to be held down Darren is already focused on the path ahead “I’m fighting tonight (Friday ) in the National Stadium against top American fighters. The next few weeks will be a little quieter as I’ll be studying for my final exams, after that it’s the EU championships in June and World Championships in August.”
