An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir Dec 2014/Jan 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 36 | Defence Forces by CAPT EOGHAN MC DERMOTT PhotoS by SGT KARL ByRNE B oxing has a proud and distinguished history within the Defence Forces. national and International Champions have entered the ring as serving personnel to great effect. boxers of note are many in number and include Phil Sutcliffe and tony Deloughrey. the most notable of all is perhaps Michael Carruth who won a gold Medal in the barcelona olympics. DF boxers have medalled also in CISM Championships and the DF hosted an International Military boxing Championships in 2002. Defence Forces boxing is currently going through a renaissance and resurgence and is very much 'punching its weight' on a national and international level. In order to keep the boxing fire lit in the DF we recently hosted the third DF Boxing Championships to be held in recent years. The Championships were held in McKee Bks, Dublin from the 29-31 October with the finals being hosted in the National Boxing Stadium on the South Circular Road, Dublin, which the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) kindly allowed us to avail of. The Championships' began with the weigh in and match ups on the Wednesday morning with the boxing commencing that afternoon. A total of 62 boxers weighed in and all were matched along IABA standards as Novice, Advanced Novice and Intermediate. As soon as boxing commenced it was very noticeable that all the bouts were fairly matched. The stan- dard in the DF has noticeable improved in recent years with complete Novices displaying very high standards. The finals were held in the National Stadium on Friday 31st October, where there were a total of 18 bouts in 10 weight categories in the various classes from Novice to Intermediate. The quality of boxing was to the highest of standards and was thrilling to watch to both the trained and untrained eye. The highlights of the day included K Loonen (6 Inf Bn) Vs M Fitzpatick (3 Inf Bn), at 71kgs, R O'Connor Vs M Blasisis both from the 1 Cn Cois at 85kgs, to name but a few. The team event was won by the 7 Inf Bn, where they won an unprecedented total of 8 bouts. For this event to take place a strong, dynamic core of support staff, coaches, umpires and referees have been working tirelessly to promote, support and run this event and continue boxing in the DF to be presented to the highest of standards. They include Pte Paul Thompson, Sgt Stephen Kelly, Cpl Declan Maher, Capt Eoghan McDer- mott, Cpl Martin Fennessy and Sgt Brendan Murray, to name just a few. Many others (too many to name) are actively boxing, training, umpiring, refereeing or supporting box- ing ensuring that it is on a solid foundation and building for the future. Championships An Cosantóir Dec 2014/Jan 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie

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