CELEBRATIONS began for David Calvert and Martin Millar who struck gold for Northern Ireland in the air rifle pairs at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
And more gongs are in prospect for the boxers with no less than seven fighters just one victory away from bronze at least after a long, hard toil for everyone concerned.
Charlie Nash remains the only casualty and David Lowry and Liam Cunningham will collect bronze today if they overcome England’s James Hegney and Australian James Swann in the flyweight and featherweight catagory respectively.
Conor McAllister defeated John Kellman (Barbados) 10-5 in the Shah Alam stadium and Monkstown’s Willie Cowan was never behind in his contest with Ghana’s Josuia Okine which he won 16-7.
By coincidence,
Paul McCloskey beat Samoan Niusiia Seivliby by the same scoreline but in dramatically different circumstances before Brian Magee defeated Zimbabwe’s Mpilisi Moyo comfortably as proceedings dragged on until well after 11pm local time.
Olympic star Magee crowned a tremendous day for Ulster boxing by securing the squad’s seventh Games quarter-final spot with 15 points to spare.
Fighting fireman Ben McGarrigle makes up the `Magnificemt Seven'.
TRANSLINK bosses are to review security procedures for major sporting events in Dublin after rail passengers were subjected to sectarian harassment by GAA fans on Sunday. Families returning from daytrips and shopping expeditions in the city were intimidated by drunken fans returning from the All-Ireland hurling finals in Croke Park. Philip O’Neill, cross-border promotions manager with Translink, said the vandalism and sectarian intimidation was the worst experienced by the company in years. Night staff in Belfast spent hours cleaning sectarian graffiti off walls and repairing damage caused after the fans ran amok between Dublin and Belfast, leaving the company with a £2,000 bill. Mr O’Neill
CELTIC supremo Fergus McCann and general manager Jock Brown came under fire at a stormy annual general meeting yesterday. McCann was booed and jeered as he addressed fans at Celtic Park, but the real venom was reserved for Brown. Several thousand shareholders packed into the club’s main stand for the meeting in the wake of a poll published yesterday in a newspaper which claimed the overwhelming majority of the 10,000 fans who took part in a telephone survey were in favour of both McCann and Brown leaving the club. The board had to endure noisy and often offensive remarks from some fans
WORLD sprint champion Ato Boldon has called for tougher action against drugs in sport. The men’s world 200m champion from Trinidad and Tobago believes Malaysia, hosts of the Commonwealth Games, are right to impose the death penalty for drugs traffickers. “I like the Malaysian law in this regard. Drugs should not be allowed to be used by anyone, least of all sportsmen,” he said. Boldon attacked the International Amateur Athletic Federation for lowering the ban for drug takers from four years to two years was wrong. “I disagree with it. Anybody using drugs can still participate in the very next Olympics,” he said.
