Khalid Yafai, Bradley Saunders and Tommy Stubbs - A Boxing Gold Medal hat trick
Last updated 22/06/2009 12:42:25
Boxing Gold Medals at the European Championships
The loss of Olympic boxers to the professional ranks and their top coach has not halted the dramatic upsurge in the sport in Great Britain as three golds were captured in the European Union Championships in Odense.
It was a thoroughly impressive week for the team as they continue to build for 2012 as Khalid Yafai, Bradley Saunders and Tommy Stubbs all came out on top.
Birmingham's Yafai was hugely impressive, with three wins – including one stoppage – by at least 10 points and the flyweight is now unbeaten since his early defeat to the top Cuban Andriy Laffita at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Yafai said: "I felt strong all the way through this week and I beat some really good opponents. It's given me great confidence to get a medal at the World Championships in Milan in August.
"It's the first time I've had to make the weight since the Olympics and I felt strong.
"I've got to have a think about where I go from here but it may be that I just get down to 54kg for the major tournaments."
Light-welterweight Saunders, also unbeaten since Beijing, put in another outstanding performance to outpoint the vastly experienced World Championships bronze medallist Gyula Kate of Hungary 13–3.
Stubbs, a light-flyweight from Manchester, fighting for the first time in the tournament after two byes, showed considerable promise with a classy display to overwhelm Poland's Lukasz Maszczyk 14–3 for the biggest win of his career.
Ireland matched England's three gold medals and then went on to claim the best team prize after having one more fighter in the finals with all nine of their team winning medals.
David Oliver Joyce beat Germany's Sandro Schaer 8–2 at 57kg, the middleweight Darren O'Neill beat the Dane Stephan Alms 16–2, and the heavyweight Con Sheehan proved too good for Spain's Juan Agustín Ailman with a 13–2 success.
Silver medals went to youngster John Joe Nevin, beaten 9–6 at 54kg by the German Denis Makarov, the welterweight Willie McLaughlin, beaten 12–4 by Hungary's Balaza Bacskai, and Geraghty, beaten by Yafai.
There were also bronze medals for Eric Donovan, Philip Sutcliffe and Kenny Egan.
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