ABS Youth Squad (from left) Keiran Smith, Coach Mike Keane, Rhys Pagan, Mark McKeown, Charlie Flynn, Coach Tony Kerr, Grant Quigley
The first of our boxers took to the ring yesterday as the European Youth Championships got under way. Both Mark McKeown and Grant Quigley progressed to the next round with Charlie Flynn unfortunate not to join them after picking up a neck injury prior to his bout. Here is what Coach Mike Keane who has travelled with the squad had to say –
“Charlie Flynn was boxing against Mihail Orlov from Moldova. Charlie was unfortunately boxing with a really sore neck and this obviously hampered his movement. Despite this Charlie took an early lead in the first round but found it difficult to move as freely as he would have liked and was getting caught with some punches he would normally have avoided. He then fell behind as the contest progressed and eventually lost by 14-11. A great effort by Charlie who had to see the Doctor after the bout finished as his neck problem had gotten worse. The Doctor said he would have ruled him out of the competition even if he had won.”
“Mark McKeown boxed against the Georgian Aleko Tchadashvili and this was a great bout to watch. Mark put his opponent down in the first round and kept the pressure on throughout the contest showing power and determination. It looked at one stage that he would stop the highly rated Georgian but his opponent managed to hold on for the 3 rounds with Mark still looking strong and fit to the end. Final score 20-11 for Mark/Scotland. He will now be boxing on Wed afternoon against Kolya Grigoryan from Armenia who won against his Italian opponent yesterday.”
“Grant was up against Aljaz Venko from Slovenia last night. The Slovenian isa tough come forward boxer with a good tight defence. Grant struggled to score in the first round and was quite fortunate to be level 2-2 at the end of the round. It was a different story in the second round with Grant showing much more urgency and determination throwing more combinations and not letting his opponent settle. At the end of the second he had a slight lead of 2 points but with the same tactics in the third round built on the lead and again finished the fitter and stronger of the two winning the contets by 8-4. Grant now boxes Dzianis Prykhodzka from Belarus on Wednesday who beat his opponent from Montenegro 16-9 yesterday.”
Rhys Pagan is up against Bulgaria’s Nikolay Koev in his first bout today. We will keep you updated on the result.
