Peter O'Donnell hails 'brilliant' medal haul for Ireland at European Juniors

Peter O'Donnell has hailed Ireland's next generation of Irish boxing aces.

The Raphoe Boxing Club man managed the Irish team for the European Junior Championships in Sarajevo.

Team Ireland return with two gold and five bronze medals.

Olympic Mullingar man John Donoghue (66kgs) and Portlaoise BC's Edward Harty (63kgs) earned gold with O'Donnell, the County Donegal Boxing Board President, having the honour of officially presenting Donoghue with his medal.

“It was a lovely moment to be chosen to present the gold medal to one of the Irish boxers,” O'Donnell told Donegal Live from Sarajevo.

Donoghue was named as the Best Male Boxer at the 2024 European Junior Championships in Sarajevo.

The Mullingar welter was crowned the 66kgs champion on Sunday, beating Artyom Stepanyan from Armenia in the final.

Donoghue, who last year won the World Junior title, landed the 19th gold medal of Ireland's history at this championship.

Some 240 boys took part in Sarajevo, but Donoghue earned the top accolade.

“He is a real cracker,” O'Donnell said. “John deservedly was named as the top male boxer. It is a fantastic honour for him to get an award like that ahead of all the other boxers who took part.”

Donoghue earned a split decision win over Stepanyan on Sunday, handing the Armenian two counts in the third round.

On Friday, Donoghue stopped Vasilije Djurdjevic in their semi-final with Djurdjevic also counted twice.

Team Ireland will return from the European Junior Championships with seven medals.

Harty blasted his way to gold, the Portlaoise BC man overcoming Aremenia’s Aleks Petrosyan in the light-welterweight final.

There will also be bronze medals returning around the necks of: 57kg Kayleigh Byrne of Gorey BC, 63kg Kaysie Joyce of Clonmel BC, 66kg Cassie Henderson of Phoenix, 50kg Kalib Walsh, Wexford CBS and 52kg Eddie Corcoran, Olympic BC.

Ireland finished third in the medal table in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The tournament included 370 boxers and 344 bouts, of which 50 were contested by Irish boxers.

O'Donnell said: “It was a brilliant return for us. For a wee country like ours to win two gold and five bronze was excellent.

“Irish boxing continues to punch with the best in the world and it's important that we keep up the high standards and high success that has been set over the recent years.

“Ireland has again showed that we can compete with anyone on any stage in boxing.”