Ireland guarantee two bronze at European Youth Championships

Monaghan’s Terry McEntee and Cork’s Oliver McCarthy have advanced to the semi-finals of the European Youth Championships in Anapa, Russia – and guaranteed Ireland at least two bronze medals.

But Derry’s Brett McGinty and Clare’s Martin John Mongan bowed out at the quarter-final stage.

McEntee showcased his skills to make the last-four at the expense of Istvan Szaka. The Hungarian flyweight, to his credit, kept pouring forward until the final bell, but McEntee picked off some wonderful shots throughout this contest to seal an impressive win.

McCarthy dominated from the latter part of the first round up in his battle of the southpaws with Finland’s Asseme Nauali. The Leesider displayed top class counter-punching skills throughout the three frames and rocked the Finn at the end of the second. He’s now two wins away from adding a second gold to the gold he claimed at the European Schoolboy Championships in Anapa in 2012.

McGinty beat Gurgen Madayan in the quarter-finals in 2012, but the Armenian evened the score yesterday in the same city. Both men went toe-to-toe for almost the entire three rounds with some big shots coming in from both sides in a very close contest, literally and on the scoring cards.

Mongan gave a typically brave display against Vladislav Muravin and clipped the Russian in his own backyard with some neat counters in at hard-hitting heavyweight duel.

McEntee and McCarthy can now enjoy a well-earned rest before Monday’s semi-finals when they’ll be looking to upgrade to at least silver versus Russia and Azerbaijan respectively.

The finals will be held on Tuesday.

Watch Brett McGinty (1hour 12minutes) and Martin John Mongan’s (1hour 52minutes) losses here:

Watch Terry McEntee (18minutes) and Oliver McCarthy’s (33minutes) wins here: