The Erne Boxing Club finished 2016 on a high with two gold medals and two silver medals at the Longford & Westmeath Open championships in Mullingar. The Erne Boxing Club had two sets of siblings competing and all four returned home with medals. Kaci and Harris Crowley both won gold and Charles and Thomas McDonagh earned silver, and this is something that delighted coach Sean Crowley.
“This was the club’s first venture into the Longford & Westmeath Open and to have all four competitors medal was very pleasing. The McDonagh brothers were extremely competitive in their finals and both came close to victory and will benefit greatly from the experience,” he said.
“Harris had a great match and had to use all his competitive spirit as well as all his technically ability to overcome a very good opponent. With two back-to-back victories since his Ulster final setback and his first title of the season under his belt he’s now set for bigger things in 2017.
“However, as a club we were delighted for Kaci. After several matches falling through this season with opponents not willing to box her we were relieved that she got the opportunity to compete. The victory was her 12th consecutive win and to get the Best Female Boxer accolade when there were other National Champions competing was extremely gratifying and underlines what a great prospect she is.”
Thomas McDonagh was first in action pitted against local Tadgh Sheridan (Mullingar Olympic BC) in the Boy 1 (Under 12’s) 31kgs class. Sheridan started fast and applied good pressure early on. However, McDonagh put in a dogged performance and landed with some good eye-catching counters throughout but was generally outworked and the unanimous decision deservedly went in favour of the host boxer.
Next up for the Erne Boxing Club saw Kaci Crowley against Alex Kinahan (Birr Boxing Club) in the Girl 2 (Under 13’s) 48kgs final. Kinahan entered the contest full of confidence having scored an impressive first round stoppage win in the semi-finals but Crowley started fast and bossed her opponent with strong stinging jabs.
Twice in the first round Crowley applied sustained pressure to force Kinahan to take standing counts and after landing several good shots early on in the round two the contested was rightly halted handing Crowley a TKO victory. The dominant performance impressed the event organisers as she was later awarded the Gold Glove award for the Best Female Boxer of the tournament.
Older sibling Harris Crowley was next in action and he made it a family double with a very hard fought points win over Hubert Doyle (Cloghan BC) in the Boy 3 (Under 14’s) 44kg class.
Doyle scored with some good overhand right-crosses and his busy bustling style gave Crowley problems early on. But in the latter half of the round Crowley upped the pace and landed with the better array of punches to take the session.
Crowley had a dominant second round countering with quality shots and had to dig deep in the final session to make sure of victory but was awarded a unanimous decision and collected his first title of the 2016/17 season in the process.
Erne Boxing Club’s fourth competitor saw Charles McDonagh pitted against the more experienced Nathan Corrigan (Lucan BC) in the Youth 1 (Under 16’s) 46kgs final. McDonagh started well and caught Corrigan with some good shots to edge the opener.
Corrigan came back strongly in the next session to out-worked McDonagh. The final round was very close and both combatants had their moments but the judges favoured Corrigan’s aggression and he collected a hard fought point win.