There will be plenty of Mayo interest in the action in the National Stadium in Dublin where the IABA Elite National Championships finals will be taking place tonight. St Anne’s Ray Moylette will be up in the fourth bout of the night when he takes on Ross Hickey in what is potentially the bout of the night in the light-welterweight (64kg ) grade. Moylette is the defending European champion and ranked number eight in the world, while Hickey is a two time elite champion and is defending his title from last year. Moylette, who had plenty of injury problems last year which curtailed his chances of making it to the Olympics, is back in top form this year and over the past two weekends saw off Patrick Mongan 14-7 in his quarter-final victory and Sean Duffy 18-10 in his semi-final win last Friday night.
Previously both of these boxers met in a titanic box-off for the Olympic qualifiers, with Moylette coming from behind to claim a win in a contest that has already gone down as one of the greats in the annals of Irish amateur boxing.
Eight bouts later it will be the turn of Michelle Lynch from the Golden Gloves club in Belmullet to defend her bantamweight (54kg ). Last year Lynch claimed the elite title to go with the u21 and intermediate titles she had won earlier the same season marking her out as a hot-prospect in the sport. She will be up against Dervla Duffy from the Royston Club in Friday’s final. Duffy saw off Christina Gargan in her semi-final last Friday night with 16-6 win.
Mayo championships come to close
A busy weekend of boxing in the Mayo Championship finals saw a large number of champions crowned across the various Boy, Girl and Youth grades. In Boy 1, James Collins won the 39kg and Padraig McDonagh won the 42kg. In Boy 2 Paddy Ward won the 39kg with Michael S Collins claiming the 42kg. In Boy 3 Matthew McDonagh took the win in the 42kg, Jason Maughan won the 63kg, and Kacper Bura won the 66kg title. The Boy 4 grade saw Terence Lawrence win the 39kg, Darren Cadden took the 44kg, and Martin F Collins won the 52kg.
In the Girl 11 year grade Lauren Padden won the 44kg with Belinda Stevens winning the 54kg. In the Girl 12 year grade, Analise Sweeney won at 39kg with Ellen McDonagh winning at 42kg. Catherine Walsh won the 44kg title in Girl 13 year grade with Danielle Ginnelly winning the 57kg and Abbie Comiskey winning the 60kg. Ciara Ginty won the Girl 15 year 57kg title with the Girl 18 year grade 57kg title going to Sinead Gill.
In the Youth one grade Dean Loftus took the 42kg win, Bernard B Ward won the 50kg, Jason Sweeney the 52kg, John J Ward the 60kg, Matthew McDonagh the 66kg, Jonathan Mongan the 70kg, Michael O’Hare the 80kg, and Patryk Famulske the 86kg win. In Youth two, Ronan Callagh won the 54kg and John G Lawrence the 70kg, while the Novice 71kg title was won by Barry Lydon. The u18 50kg girls’ title went to Shelley Daly with the boys’ u18 60kg going to Benjamin Garrett.
