Boxing: Irish Elite Championships
AN all-Ulster clash is among several eye-catching quarter-final bouts kick-starting the Irish Elite Championships tonight.
Reigning Ulster champion JP Hale, who picked up his third elite provincial title at the Guildhall before Christmas, is bidding to begin 2023 with a bang when he takes on Daryl Clarke for a place in Sunday’s semi-final.
Clarke announced his arrival on the elite stage with some brilliant performances en route to claiming the 2020 Ulster light-welterweight title – only for the Covid pandemic to hit these shores weeks later, curtailing his progression.
The Carrickfergus man got the better of Holy Family’s highly-rated Ryan Lavery, then 2018 finalist Caoimhin Ferguson, but was still viewed as an underdog going in his final with the tall, rangy Jack McGivern.
However, Clarke came flying out of the blocks to claim the crown, and Best Boxer award, at a packed Ulster Hall. Having seen little competitive action in the time between, he will be hoping to pick up where he left off almost three years on, but it is a big ask.
Hale was operating at 57kg back then, bringing the crowd to its feet after a titanic tussle with Colm Murphy in the night’s final fight, but has since progressed through the weights, the Star man moving up to 63.5kg in a bid to stake his claim for an Olympic spot.
By his own admission, that step up came too soon for last summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, when Hale – who had suffered a hand injury before the competition – fell at the first hurdle against Ugandan powerhouse Joshua Tukamuhebwa.
But the 22-year-old, speaking after getting the better of Anthony Malanaphy in an entertaining Ulster final last month, feels he is growing into the division and hopes to make his mark at the National Stadium.
“It was hard [losing early at the Commonwealths], because we were all in the same camp, we all put the same time and effort in, then that was me out straight away,” he said.
“When I was 60 kilo, I was sparring the likes of Brandon McCarthy and Dean Clancy, and you realise ‘I’m going to be that weight soon’, and you see how much you’re improving, I want to be fighting those boys soon.”
That wish could come true this weekend, with the winner of European U22 gold medallist Clancy’s quarter-final against James McDonagh facing either Hale or McGivern in the last four.
Defending Irish champion McCarthy is on the other side of the draw, and he faces Malanaphy with a semi-final against Aaron O’Donoghue up for grabs.
Although not at one of the designated Paris 2024 weight classes, Hale’s Star club-mate Lee McKee aims to carry on the momentum from his first Ulster title triumph into a 60 kilo showdown with Erne’s Rhys Owens. The winner faces Adam Courtney tomorrow.
Elsewhere tonight, the pick of the action looks to be the opening bout, when European youth gold medallist Daina Moorehouse takes on Mayo’s Shannon Sweeney – a European bronze medallist back in September.
In the same flyweight division, but on the other side of the draw, Belfast pair Carly McNaul and Caitlin Fryers face off tomorrow afternoon – the experienced McNaul having shaded their one previous meeting in the 2019 Ulster final.
In the men’s light-middleweight division, Belfast’s Olympic bronze medallist Aidan Walsh will be keeping an eye on tonight’s showdown between Dean Walsh, who has recently returned to the sport, and Igor Blazhenko – with the Emerald counter-puncher awaiting the winner in a Friday, January 20 semi-final.
At 57kg, Letterkenny’s Paddy McShane awaits the winner of tonight’s clash between the experienced Myles Casey and Louth’s Jordan Smith.
TONIGHT’S SCHEDULE
Irish Elite Championships (7pm start)
50kg: D Moorehouse (Enniskerry) v Shannon Sweeney (St Annes)
57kg: J Smith (Holy Family, Drogheda) v Myles Casey (St Francis’s)
60kg: L McKee (Star) v Rhys Owens (Erne)
63.5kg: B McCarthy (St Michael’s, Athy) v Anthony Malanaphy (Erne)
63.5kg: D Clarke (Monkstown) v JP Hale (Star)
63.5kg: J McDonagh (St Paul’s, Waterford) v D Clancy (Sean McDermott’s)
71kg: I Blazhenko (Liberty) v D Walsh (St Ibar’s/Joseph’s)
75kg: G Rafferty (Dublin Docklands) v J Brady (Crumlin)
92+kg: S Ilesanmi (St Mary’s) v G Lisinskas (Celtic)
92+kg: K McEneaney (Dealgan) v T Maughan (Cavan)
