Sport

Mixed fortunes for County Antrim teams

AN inexperienced County Antrim team found the going tough at the Montana Belts multi-nations tournament in Paris at the weekend.

The team, coached by Star's Mickey Corr, had some impressive performances but were up against quality opposition throughout.

Braid bantamweight Anthony O'Rawe lost out in the last four after a cracking fight against a Ukrainian opponent, having beaten a Swede at the quarter-final stage.

There was Swede revenge for the Scandinavian country at light-welter though as Gerard Matthews of St Paul's fell to a Swedish opponent in the quarter-final. Canal's Sean Montgomery beat his French opponent to reach the welterweight final. In the decider though he was up against a fighter who represented Algeria at the 2012 Olympics and - despite suffering a broken hand - Montgomery battled on bravely before being stopped.

The Holy Trinity pair of heavyweight Stephen McMonagle and super-heavy Jason Barron both lost at the semi-final stage after tough battles.

Over in Spain, meanwhile, a County Antrim youth team performed well in a tournament that included teams from the host nation, Kazakhstan and Lithuania. Martin Stokes won gold and picked up the best boxer award, Holy Family's Aidan Walsh (64kg) took silver and Daniel Lindsay (56kg) and Niall McAlinden (60kg) brought home bronze.

The Lithuania Boxing Federation was so impressed by the Antrim boxers that they have invited them to a tournament in August. Former British super-middleweight champion Sam Storey, who now lives and runs his own gym in Spain, has organised a youth multi-nations club tournament, to run from September 10-14. The tournament is in collaboration with the Spanish Boxing Federation for youths born in 1977 and 1978. Clubs interested in taking part should contact sam@samstorey.com