WILLIE VALENTINE was a very disappointed young man after losing his Irish bantamweight crown at the National Senior Championships at the National Stadium last night.

Hot favourite Valentine lost his semi-final to the deserved winner Oliver Duddy from the Coleraine club and with it his chance of going to the European championships in Denmark and the opportunity of representing Ireland at the Olympic Games in Atlanta next July

Cathal O'Grady had an easy passage through to the final of the heavyweight championship when his semi-final opponent, Ben McGarrigle dropped out leaving O'Grady, the European junior champion, a clear path to the final. There he will be joined by Damien McKenna from Drogheda in the bantamweight division, Adrian Patterson from Newry and Terry Coyle from Sacred Heart, Belfast at featherweight, Owen Montague from Antrim at lightweight as well as Martin Reneghan from Keady.

Also into the finals, are Francis Barrett from Olympic and John Morrissey from Sunnyside with Neil Gough from Waterford the reigning champion, also into next week's decider against Sean Barrett from Rylane in the welter-weight division.

Trinity student Tim O'Connor of Knocknagoshel gained a controversial 12-10 super-heavy decision over his fellow-countyman Ted Clifford (Rylane Cork). Clifford led 8-6 at the end of the second round and appeared to have had the best of the third during which O'Connor took two standing counts of eight.