FOUR BOXERS from Donegal are on the final entry list for the 2017 National Elite Senior Championships, which get underway in Dublin on Friday night.
Darryl Moran (Illies Golden Gloves), Mark McCole (Dungloe), Brett McGinty (Oakleaf) and Maeve McCarron (Carrigart) will all take to the scales on Friday at The National Stadium.
With Olympians Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan and Katie Taylor turning pro, there are a number of titles now up for grabs as a new batch of hopefuls look to make a mark on Zaur Antia’s High Performance team.
With Barnes gone pro, the light-flyweight category is there for Darryl Moran, following on from his winning of the Under-22 final last weekend. Moran overcame Urlingford’s Jordan Leahy.
[adrotate group=”46″]Blaine Dobbins (St Josephs, Derry) and Connor Jordan (St Aidans) have also marked cards for the light-fly division, but Moran is the man on form and there is a real opening here with Regan Buckley, tipped by many as Barnes’ heir apparent, also making his way to the paid ranks.
Steven McKenna has moved up to flyweight and Moran will surely head for the capital in good spirits, having turned in one of the night’s most impressive displays in the Under-22 deciders.
McCole and McGinty could well meet over the next couple of weeks. The welterweight pair are in a very competitive division that includes 2016 Olympian Steven Donnelly.
The Ballymena man overcame Algerian Zohir Kedache and Mongolian Byambyn Tushinbat before bowing out following a quarter-final loss to Mohammed Rabii in Rio.
[adrotate group=”76″]There had been question marks over Donnelly’s participation here, but the All Saints man is raring to go.
McCole won an Irish Colleges crown in 2014 and was also a Youth 2 Irish champion, while St Johnston native McGinty is an eight-time Irish title winner, who was a silver medallist at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games.
Carrigart puncher McCarron will line up at 81+kgs and is the only Donegal female to enter with Donan Barr’s hand injury preventing the Twin Towns woman from taking part.
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