Boxers move closer to European Championships

Ireland's top boxers edged a step closer toward staking their claim for a place on the squad for next month's European Championships in Liverpool at the Open Senior Championships in the National Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.

Ten semi-finals were decided at headquarters, the first bout of the evening seeing the impressive Stephen O'Reilly overturning a 3-0 first round deficit to see off the challenge of St Michael's Athy middleweight Hugh Joyce.

Lightweight Ross Hickey also impressed with a four round win over Ciaran Bates, and Stephen Donnelly led all the way to the final bell versus Larry Fryers.

Philip Sutcliffe was always going to have his work cut out against Irish 2008 Olympian and reigning senior light welterweight champion John Joe Joyce.

And 'Triple J' lived up to his billing, catching the Crumlin man with stiff left hooks to the body in the first before forcing Sutcliffe into a standing count at the end of the second - Joyce was 21-4 up at that stage.

Sutcliffe added five points to his total in a much improved third round for the Dubliner - but Joyce's 25-9 advantage going into the final frame was too much of a mountain to climb.

Fergal Redmond beat Sean Hunt in the first of the welterweight semi-finals. The Arklow man will now face Willie McLoughlin in next Fridays 69Kg final after the Donegal ace out pointed battling Thomas Blaney.

Meanwhile, Eamon O'Kane needed a paper thin 13-12 count-back verdict to advance at the expense of Brian Brosnan, who was twice ahead by one point in the final 30 seconds of the final round.

Semi-final results (in running order):

75Kg: Stephen O'Reilly (Twintowns) beat David Joyce (St Michael's Athy) 16-8

60Kg: Ross Hickey (Grangecon) beat Ciaran Bates (St Mary's Dublin) 15-3

64Kg: Larry Fryers (Clones) lost to Stephen Donnelly (All Saints) 2-12

64Kg: Philip Sutcliffe (Crumlin) lost to John Joe Joyce (St Michael's Athy) 12-30

69Kg: Sean Hunt (St Matthews) lost to Fergal Redmond (Arklow) 7-16

69Kg: Willie McLoughlin (Illies GG) beat Tom Blaney (Westside) 8-5

75Kg: Eamon O'Kane (Immaculata) beat Brian Brosnan (Olympic) 6-6 C/B 13-12

51Kg: Derek McArdle (Dealgen) lost to Jimmy Moore (St Francis) 6-14

91Kg: Patrick Corcoran (Galway) beat Hugh Joyce (St Michael's Athy) 8-8 C/B 16-14

91Kg: Jimmy Sweeney (Drimngh) lost to Con Shehan (Clonmel) 10-10 C/B 22-24