BOXING/AIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:ONE WORLD medallist flies in, one world champion flies out. John Joe Nevin and the Ireland squad arrived home from the AIBA World Championships yesterday just 24 hours after world champion Katie Taylor flew out to the Ukraine to target her fourth European title in a row.
Nevin claimed a bronze medal and helped Ireland finish in 12th spot in the points and medals tables at the world championships, which concluded in Milan on Saturday.
The 133-nation championships at the Mediolanum Forum saw Ireland acquire 15 points along with 11th and 10th placed Bulgaria and Armenia, who are ranked higher by virtue of getting boxers into the finals. Russia, Cuba and Uzbekistan, in that order, finished in the top three.
Ireland finished joint 14th with nine other nations in the medals tables. Nevin’s medal is Ireland’s sixth at world championships level.
Dublin light heavyweight Ken Egan and Donegal welterweight Willie McLaughlin finished in the top eight and Darren O’Neill and Declan Geraghty in the top 16.
Nevin had to settle for bronze on Friday after he was edged out 5-4 by Russian Eduard Abzalimov in the semi-finals.
Abzalimov, meanwhile, was beaten 5-3 by Bulgaria’s Detelin Dalakliev in Saturday’s bantamweight final.
Speaking at Dublin Airport yesterday, Irish IABA president Dominic O’Rourke said: “John Joe was brilliant, world class in fact, and he’s only going to get better in the future. The Bulgarian lad he beat last year won gold on Saturday.
“That shows you just how close he was to winning a gold medal. There’s nothing between him and the best in the world and he’s only 20 years of age and he’s improving all the time.”
Nevin said: “I would like to thank everyone for all the help they have given me, especially my coaches and everyone in the IABA and all the people that sent me best wishes in Milan.
“It was very close in the semi- final and it could have gone either way in the final few minutes. My next step is to defend my Irish senior title and take it from there.”
Meanwhile, Taylor flew out to Nikolaev in the Ukraine on Saturday along with team-mates Kelly Harrington and Sinéad Kavanagh for the Women’s European Championships.
Taylor will be aiming to win her fourth European title in a row in the Ukraine, but her coach and dad Peter Taylor reckons it’s going to be a lot tougher this time out.
He said: “A lot of the boxers are moving toward lightweight because they know it is an Olympic weight and that will make it all the tougher for Katie.
“She is aiming for four in a row here, but we are expecting a very high entry in this weight category and that will present its own challenges.”
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