Erne Boxing Club’s Rhys Owens produced yet another excellent performance as he secured his first national title by landing the Irish U22 crown at the National Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.

Owens set aside a slow start to the contest to take the title on a 4-1 split decision over Brian Gilroy (Fr Flannagans BC) much to the delighted of Erne Boxing Club’s Head Coach, Sean Crowley.

“All the coaches are extremely proud of Rhys, he is now the leading role model for the boxers in the club and he is leading the charge of boxers in the vicinity. In victory and defeat he shows great humility and he deserves so much respect. We are very proud of him,” said Crowley.

Owens put the set back of being on the wrong end of a contentious decision in the National Elite semi-finals behind him to power his way to the final although as Crowley explains, illness nearly ruled him out of contesting the decider.

“Rhys unfortunately came down with a very bad cold on Wednesday evening and that impeded his preparations over the last couple of days and it was touch and go whether he was actually going to be fit for the match.

“But thankfully he was able to keep his weight under control whilst recovering and he was well enough on the day to make the weight and compete.”

Gilroy, a former National champions at Juvenile level, was younger but more experienced than the Erne boxer and his tricky southpaw style posed problems for Owens in the first round.

Rhys struggled to find his range and as a result Gilroy got off to a better start, landed more shots and won the opening session.

The corner told Owens to relax and not panic between rounds and he was given some simple instructions in terms of instead of looking for his counters he was to work on different ways to draw his opponents leads so he could get his counter punches off. This advice was taken on board and proved a big success.

Once Owens got one or two early scores in round two he really began to settle and his quality started to shine through. The second round was very competitive but Owens just did a fraction more to win the session to leave the third round to be the decider.

In the final session, Owens, buoyed by his success in round two, really showed all his qualities and found the target with some really clear scoring shots. At one stage it looked as if the referee might give Gilroy a count as one back hand really snapped his opponent’s head back but there was no disputing who won the last round.

It was a nervy wait for the decision because it was announced as a split decision, four judges to one, but deservingly the decision was awarded in favour of Rhys and he collected his first national title in the process.

“Rhys’ success was our club’s ninth national title to date and of all the titles we’ve won this was probably the most deserving,” added Crowley. “He has had several set backs this season, he really should have been Ulster Elite champion and arguably he should have been in a national final and he was denied the chance of winning a national elite title through two contentious decisions.

“But despite the set backs he continued to work extremely hard. We squeezed in a tournament in Canada and he came back from Canada buoyed and ready to target these U22s.

“Originally, U22s weren’t part of our plan for Rhys, after the National Elites and Canada we were going to give him a rest and then start building again for later in the year but he was determined to to them so we gave him the opportunity and he delivered. He scored four wins over four very good opponents.”

Owens has also impressed the Ulster High Performance coaches as well as the national High Performance Unit and will go to Scotland with Ulster next week.

“Rhys has been called up to the Ulster High Performance and he will be heading off to Scotland next week for an Ulster and Scottish national team joint training camp where he will get competitive sparring and a few test matches,” said Crowley, who says that they will also keep a keen eye on Olympic qualification.

“We will be keeping a close eye on what happens at the European Games.

“If Ireland fail to qualify a boxer at 63.5kg for Paris then later in the year we will probably move Rhys up in weight and challenge for the number one spot in the Light Welterweight category which is an Olympic qualifying weight.

“We are going to aim big and who knows, the dream of the club producing an Olympian is still there.

“If the people of Fermanagh get behind Rhys and give him the support he needs he certainly has a shot of reaching the pinnacle of the sport.”

 

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