6 target medals
10 November 2008 – By Cormac Campbell
An incredible six Irishmen have advanced to the quarter finals of the European championships.
The half dozen are now just one fight away from a guaranteed bronze at the Liverpool event.
Eamon O’Kane, Con Sheehan John Joe Joyce, David Oliver Joyce, Ross Hickey and Ryan Lindberg are just minutes away from securing their places in Irish boxing history.
Immaculata middleweight OKane, formerly of St Canices Dungiven, proved good to the last drop as he came back from behind to seal a 7-6 victory against Turkeys Adem Killiggi 7-6. The Dungiven native now faces Armenias Andranik Hakobyan.
Con Sheehan, kept the good times rolling with a 10-2 victory over Belarus Viktar Chvarkou. He now faces Petrisor Gananau of Romania.
Of Irelands five Olympians, only light welterweight John Joe Joyce is competing in these championships and he showed all the experience of a Beijing veteran with an impressive 20-3 win over Scotlands John Tain. JJJ now meets 2004 lightweight champion Dimitar Stilianov of Bulgaria.
Should any of the boxers progress to the final of their respective division (fingers crossed), coach potatoes will be faced with a difficult decision as TG4 screen the finals live on the same evening as Bernard Dunnes clash with Cristian Faccio on RTE2.
