One of the most impressive achievements by a young Irish sportsman in recent times was the gold medal achieved in last year’s World Junior (under 17) boxing championships in Armenia by Moate light-middleweight Joe Ward. Ward stopped three out of his four opponents, including a Russian and a Kazakh, on his way to victory. You could be excused for thinking it couldn’t get much better for the young man from the home town of TR Dallas.
Well, last week Ward was competing as a middleweight in the World Youth (under 19) championships in Azerbaijan, even though he is still only 16. And this time he came up against a hotly fancied Cuban, Frankie Sanchez, in just his second bout. Ward beat Sanchez 8-1 on points, a victory which earned him a quarter-final against Russia’s Kyazim Aneev who he defeated 9-6. Victories over Colombia’s Palacio Carrillo and Australia’s Damien Hooper completed a remarkable double.
The post-Beijing bounce for our amateur boxers is a remarkable thing. Two years ago, Mayo’s Ray Moylett became our first World Youth champ and has since graduated to become national senior champion. And, while Ward is obviously something of a phenomenon, his heroics were almost matched by Belfast light-flyweight Ryan Burnett.
Burnett’s path to the final included a victory over Yosvany Veita Soto, silver medallist at this year’s Cuban senior championships, and he came up just short against home fighter, Salman Alizada, in the decider. There was a time when drawing a Cuban spelt inevitable defeat for an Irish boxer but Portlaoise lightweight Michael O’Reilly made it 3-0 to the Irish when he defeated World Junior champion, Yunior Boleri. O’Reilly was defeated in the quarter-final by eventual gold medallist, Vikas Krishan of India.
It’s exciting to think of what Ward might achieve. Right now, it really is hard to be humble when you’re a fan of Irish boxing.