Geesala’s Katie Rowland wins silver in France

Rowland wins European silver medal in France


Daniel Carey

KATIE Rowland from Geesala Boxing Club returned from France on Sunday with a silver medal from the European Youth and Junior Championships finals in Calais.
The flyweight lost out on gold in agonising fashion, beaten on a 10-9 count-back by Russia’s  Victoriya Kuleshava following a 4-4 tie in the 51kg Youth final. She had earlier got the nod in the semi-final, winning a 13-10 count-back against Katarzyan Brodacka of Poland after a 6-6 tie, and was impressive in her quarter-final, beating Hungarian Vivien Mizei 7-1.
“To come back with an Irish U-21 title and a European silver medal in one week is quite an achievement,” Geesala and Ireland coach Patrick McDonagh told The Mayo News yesterday. The 17-year-old won her fifth Irish title the weekend before last, shortly before flying out to France. That served as ideal preparation, according to McDonagh, who was part of the coaching staff in France – “It meant she was ring sharp before she went out there … that fight really paid dividends”.
Rowland will be in action in the National Intermediate Championships in two weeks time, and given her age, Patrick McDonagh says a shot at the 2016 Olympics shouldn’t be out of reach.
“That’s the kind of potential we have,” he said. Mayo is probably the strongest county in Ireland for female boxing. To bring out a team of ten boxers and to win six medals was unbelievable. They were talking about the Turks, the Russians and the Irish as being the toughest boxers out there. So we flew the flag and they all did us proud.”
Rowland was joined on the Irish team by two Geesala team-mates. Michelle Lynch (16) was “unbelievable”, according to McDonagh, but lost out at the last eight stage to a much more experienced Polish boxer, Martyana Letkiewicz. Louise Donohue (15) bowed out despite a brave performance against French featherweight Sonia Druot.