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Euro star Caitlin Fryers will only get better insists coach Martin Lindsay

Some future Immaculata stars welcomed European silver medallist Caitlin Fryers back to Belfast on Sunday night
Some future Immaculata stars welcomed European silver medallist Caitlin Fryers back to Belfast on Sunday night Some future Immaculata stars welcomed European silver medallist Caitlin Fryers back to Belfast on Sunday night

CAITLIN Fryers was the breakout star of Ireland’s most successful international tournament – and club coach Martin Lindsay insists there is much more to come from the Immaculata pocket rocket.

The 22-year-old claimed a silver medal at the European Championships in Montenegro, producing three brilliant performances before coming up short against talented Turk Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the light-flyweight decider.

And yet it could have been so different.

Before the championships Fryers revealed that she had come close to turning her back on boxing once the Covid-19 pandemic struck, only for former British featherweight champion Lindsay to help her find the fire once more.

And, while Fryers cut a disappointed figure on the podium after Saturday’s defeat, Lindsay feels reaching the final in Budva – and landing a medal that guarantees Sport Ireland funding – can push the west Belfast woman on to another level.

“It will give her loads of confidence,” he said.

“I have no doubt there’s much more to come from Caitlin. This will kick her on again. She dominated at underage level, was going away to tournaments and getting medals consistently. Now she has this medal, it’ll be a bit of a weight off her shoulders and she can start to really kick on.

“You have to remember, when Caitlin stepped up to elite before lockdown [in 2020], she was only 19. There was no competitive boxing for a year-and-a-half, but during that time we did outdoor sessions and gradually she started to get the bug back.

“When the Irish elites came up last year, I was so confident about her winning it because she was boxing so well, and she had that bit of hunger back that was maybe missing before Covid.

“She went down there, won the title, and has been in Dublin four days a week ever since.”

With the Irish Elite Championships in January marking the beginning of the qualification process for Paris 2024, Fryers will face stiff competition for the 50 kilo spot, as the likes of Carly McNaul, Niamh Fay and Daina Moorehouse are all expected to stake their claim in a stacked division.

Yet, having grown into the weight class while others will be coming up or coming down, Fryers could yet hold the upper hand, with her improvement clear to see over the past week.

“There will probably be a few moving about,” said Lindsay.

“Even just to get out of Ireland is a challenge but she’s there and she’s the current champion. She’s the one to beat, and it’s her natural weight so there won’t be a struggle that way.

“She’ll fancy her chances to go and win it.”

And while Fryers has had a taste of the elite international stage at the World Championships, European U22s and Strandja multi-nations in a busy 2022, Lindsay believes the European Championships showed how quickly she is adjusting to that level.

“That international experience is so important.

“The first couple of competitions where she was getting a win then getting a loss, she was trying to find her way. It’s a bit different when you’re being trained a certain way in your club, then you go down to Dublin and they have a different system.

“The advice I gave to her was that she sometimes needs to take the initiative herself and do what best suits her. When you’re in the ring, you’re in there by yourself. You get instructions, but ultimately you have to carry them out and you need to have that belief in yourself to do it. That can take time.

“Now she seems to have found that a bit because, watching her at the Europeans compared to some of the competitions earlier in the year, she looked a lot more aggressive, throwing more hooks to the body, hooks to the head.

“Up at that level, confidence is extremely important. She got three good wins against some of the top fighters in Europe at her weight, got to the final against an extremely good opponent, and gave it her lot. You can’t ask any more than that.

“Most importantly, though, I think you saw that she’s starting to figure out what you need to do on the international stage to get the wins.”

Meanwhile, in a busy weekend for Mac man Lindsay, he travelled to Sheffield with the Belfast Met Boxing Academy for a Friday fight night at Bramall Lane – home of Championship side Sheffield United.

Alongside Malachy Scott, Mickey Corr and John Mulhern, co-ordinator of the Belfast Met Boxing Academy, Lindsay helped get a seven-strong team ready for the regular renewal with their opponents from the Steel City.

With two fights unable to go ahead on the night, the Met eventually edged a close night of action 3-2, and returned home on Saturday with another valuable learning experience under their belts.