Geraghty and O'Neill bow out

BOXING:DECLAN GERAGHTY lost out in his quest to reach the quarter-finals of the AIBA World Championships in Milan after he was beaten 17-7 by Tugstogt Nyambayar of Mongolia in Milan tonight.

Geraghty, the youngest member of the Irish squad at 19, was seeking to become the second Dublin southpaw to reach the last eight after Ken Egan and was 3-2 up at the end of the first round.

The Irish senior champion stretched that lead to 4-2 early in the second but Nyambayar came storming back to force Geraghty into a standing eight count and command a 9-4 advantage going into the third and final round.

Despite the defeat, Irish head coach Billy Walsh praised the Dublin Docklands fighter.

He said: “This is his first World Championships and he is in the top 16 in the world. The experience of boxing at tournaments like this will stand to him in the future.”

Darren O’Neill also lost out last night after he suffered a 7-3 reversal to Armenian, Andranik Hakobyan in a very tactical middleweight duel. Hakoyban was 2-1 up at the end of the first round and 4-3 ahead following some close range exchanges in the second.

However, with the Kilkenny man chasing the fight in the third and final round, Hakoyban picked off another three shots to seal the last 16 win.

Meanwhile, Ken Egan, Willie McLaughlin and John Joe Nevin will all be in last eight action this afternoon trading leather for podium positions at the 15th edition of the championships.

Egan faces French light heavyweight Abdelkader Bouhenia, while classy Cavan bantamweight John Joe Nevin meets Yu Gu of China. Donegal welterweight McLaughlin is in against Russian puncher Andrey Zamkovoy.

Three wins will guarantee at least three bronze medals to add to the five bronze already claimed by Olympic champion Michael Carruth, Tommy Corr, Damaen Kelly, Stephen Kirk and James Moore since the first World Championships in Cuba in 1974.

Moore, whose father Jim is a High Performance coach with the IABA, was the last Irish boxer to win a medal at this level after he claimed bronze in Belfast in 2001.

Olympic champion Michael Carruth is hoping for more cause for celebration today. He said: “The lads have done the hard work to get themselves into this position and they now have a great opportunity to add to Ireland’s medal count at this level.”