Quality is high at Championships - O'Rourke

Irish boxing chief Dominic O'Rourke believes that whoever emerges victorious from the 2009 National Intermediate Championships will have earned it.

A weekend dominated by quarter final action will also see seven semi finals decided at the National Stadium this Friday and Saturday.

Holy Trinity ace Ruairi Dalton will trade leather with Liam McGuiness in an all Belfast 54Kg showdown in one of three last four duels on Saturday.

Dalton, who is trained by brothers Mickey and Harry Hawkins, will face either Shane Long or Anthony O'Brien, who meet in the other semi final, in the bantamweight final.

Meanwhile, the weekends eliminators see's 41 last eight clashes down for decision on Friday and Saturday, which will have two sessions beginning at 2pm and 7pm.

AIBA World youth champ Ray Moylette will be in the ring on Friday evening for a lightweight clash with Paul T Hyland of the Immaculata club in Belfast.

Moylette, from the St Anne's club in Westport, saw off the challenge of Gearoid Mac A Bair last Saturday to set up his meeting with Hyland, who beat Patrick Walsh on the same night.

Looking ahead to the weekends programme, Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) President O'Rourke said that the Championships, the second biggest in the IABA calendar, is building up nicely.

He said: "We saw some excellent bouts last weekend and I expect that it's going to be very interesting and exciting again this weekend at the National Stadium. We got a massive entry for this years tournament and whoever wins out their respective divisions on finals night will certainly have earned it."

"The Championships is building up nicely at the moment and we're all looking forward to a weekend of top class action."

Meantime, current U/21 champ Patrick Gallagher faces Mark Sallinger in a 64Kg quarter final. Boxing begins at 7pm on Friday.

The remaining semi finals of the 2009 National Intermediate Championships will be held on Friday 4 December. The finals will be held on Friday December 11th.

The weigh-in for Friday's bouts will be held between 8.30am and 9.30am and 12 noon and 1pm at the National Stadium. Saturday's weigh-in will be held between 8.30am and 9.30am.

A record 140 bouts will have been decided when the final bell of the 2009 Championships tolls at the home of Irish boxing on December 11th.