2011 Women's European Championships.

walshb

By Michael O’Neill



Katie Taylor faces without doubt her toughest challenge to date, as the 2011 European Women’s Championships get under way today at the Topsport Centrum in Rotterdam.


In the last major event before the 2012 Worlds in China, Taylor faces very strong opposition that includes two World Champions, Turkey’s Gulsum Tatar (who has twice ,controversially, defeated Taylor, albeit a few years back) and Russian team captain Sofya Ochigava, a ‘shock’ 8:1 winner against Taylor in the Czech Republic last year, when many neutral observers believed the Irish champ should have had four or five points in round one alone.

Also taking part will be the elite of the 60kg lightweight division’s usual boxers including Denica Eliseeva, Ingrid Egner, Danuse Dilhofova and England’s former European kick-boxing champion, 19 years old Chantelle Cameron from Northampton who despite her relative inexperience may well be a surprise medal contender here .



Taylor, at her best, has already defeated these and the other challengers on one or more occasions so the real threats will be Ochigava, twice the World Bantam champion at 54kg and Tatar, the 64kg World light welter champion.

Ireland has chosen a nine strong team for this vital tournament, an event rightly described by Taylor’s Dad and Coach, Peter as being as tough as the last World Championships.

Russia’s Head Coach is keen to play down any suggestion that this is simply between Taylor and Ochigava saying that the entry is so strong that they may not even meet. One or either could be defeated, he says whilst also pointing out that Ochigava has only recently returned to action following a serious knee injury which kept her out for almost a year.



In her preparation for this event though Ochigava has appeared to be almost back to her very best pre-injury form.A unique feature of the Rotterdam event is the appearance of three Azerbaijani women boxers in Ayzanat Hajiyeva (60 kg), Helena Vistropova (69 kg) and Leyla Javadova (75 kg)

Some of Ireland’s leading future prospects are also in the team for Rotterdam including Katie Rowland from the Geesala club, Michael Walsh of the Holy Family BC (both bronze medal winners in the 2011 World Youth Championships and Cavan’s Ceire Smith, who represented her country at the 2010 Worlds in Barbados.


One thing IS sure and that is that the 60kg class will be by far and away the hardest to win. Whoever comes out on top will be a worthy winner in this the 8th European Championship title , where the last four 60kg golds have been gone to Katie Taylor.The finals are on Saturday.

Ireland Team and Management: Rotterdam : 17th-22nd October

48Kg: Lynne McEnery (St Pauls)
51Kg: Katie Rowland (Geesala)
54Kg: Ceire Smith (Cavan)
57Kg: Michaela Walsh (Holy Family)
60Kg: Katie Taylor (Bray)
64Kg: Kelly Harrington (Corinthians)
69Kg: Laoise Traynor (Bray)
75kg: Sinead Kavanagh (Drimnagh)
81kg: Lauragh O'Neill (Paulstown)

Team manager: Anna Moore
Coaches: Pete Taylor, Zaur Antia, Damien Kelly
Physio: Mary Louise Ryan


Extract Courtesy: SportsNewsIreland.com

Craptacular

Following the draw this morning three Irish boxers are in action this afternoon:

60kg: Katie Taylor V Julia Irmen (Ger)
69kg: Laoise Traynor V Lauren Price (Wal)
75kg: Sinead Kavanagh V Viktoria Kebikava (Bel)

Craptacular

Katie won 15-7, Laoise lost 21-2 and Sinead won 18-9.

Craptacular

October 18th (Last 16)
 
48Kg: Lynne McEnery (St Pauls) v Lynsey Holdaway (Wales)
51Kg: Katie Rowland (Geesala) v Nicola Adams (England)
54Kg: Ceire Smith (Cavan) v Csilla Nemedi (Hungary)
57Kg: Michael Walsh (Holy Family) v Sandra Kruk (Poland)
60Kg; Katie Taylor (Bray) v Romina Marenda (Italy)
64Kg: Kelly Harrington (Corinthians) v Martina Schmaranzova (Czech Republic)
75Kg: Sinead Kavanagh (Drimnagh) v  (Savannah Marshal (England)

mjon3105

Update courtesy of SportsNewsIreland.com

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/57884/


So wins for Taylor and Kavanagh but Laoise Traynor of Bray goes out against new Welsh 'star of the future' Lauren Price. The 17 yrs old dual football/boxing international won convincingly 21:2

Taylor, Katie Rowland, Michaela Walsh, Ceire Smith, Lynne McEnery and Kelly Harrington will all be in action on Tuesday,with Rowland in particular facing a huge task as she takes on England's Nikki Adams who recently struck Gold in the European Union championships and is one of the favourites for London 2012.

Sinead Kavanagh too will be 'up against it' when she meets England's "silent assassin" Savannah Marshall from Hartlepool who won a Silver medal at the 2010 World Championships in Barbados.

mjon3105

Katie Taylor won very convincingly today against Italy's Romina Marenda 22:3 so now meets Ayzanat Hajiyeva of Azerbaijan in Wednesday's quarter final.
Russian team captain Sofya Ochigava who has an easy win Monday followed that up with a 20:9 victory over GB's Chantelle Cameron today.

Other 60 kg winners today included Denitsa Eliseeva (Bulgaria), Oleksandra Sydorenko (Ukraine), Karolina Graczyk (Poland)Sandra Brugger (Switzerland), and Helena Falk of Sweden plus the aforementioned Hajiyeva.

Heartache though for other members of the Irish team. Waterford's Lynne McEnery went out to Lynsey Holdaway to Welsh no 1. Holdaway reached the quarter finals of the 2010 worlds in Barbados a year ago losing only to 5 time world champion flyweight Mary Kom.A narrow 12-11 win for Holdaway againjst McEnery.

Out today also went Katie Rowland the Geesala teenager who was retired by her corner at end of round two against the World No 2, GB's Nikki Adams a silver medallist in Ningbo City 2008 and Barbados 2010 and gold medallist at the 2011 European union event in Katowice.Rowland fought a gallant fight and the experience gained in Rotterdam will stand her in good stead in the years to come.

Kelly Harrington of the Corinthiansclub lost on countback 9:9 against Martina Schmoranzova of the Czech Republic. Rest of the team in action later this evening so later update follows late tonight.

makl

taylor & ochigava on course to meet http://www.ec-womanboxing.com/Accreditation/ResultsS7A.pdf

mjon3105

courtesy of SportsNewsIreland.com

ps: Lauragh O'Neill has just also exited the championships after a gutsy performance aginst Hungarian Timea Nagy. The Hungarian (who is ranked in World top 10) won 16:7 . Irish Team Manager Anna Moore said later: ""Lauragh showed just how much she has improved from the last time they met you could see that improvement "

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/58203/

Friday's semi-finals and Saturday's final being streamed LIVE on www.ewbc.eu Details on that official website.

walshb

Tasty final in store now:

Katie wins well to set up meeting with Russian:

http://www.rte.ie/sport/boxing/2011/1021/taylork.html

mjon3105

Yes Bren it was an excellent win 25:11 here in Rotterdam this afternoon.
Ochigava also won well 17:6 against Eliseeva of Bulgaria so should be a great bout.Both are in top form.

Lynsey Holdaway of Wales also qualified for tomorrow's final as did the virtually unknown Lisa Whiteside whose first international tournament this is.
Holdaway is a vastly improved boxer these days - the Romanian she defeated is one of the leading boxers in the 48 kg division.Though she lost today the young 17yrs old Welsh girl Lauren Price also fought a gallant fight against Maria Badulina, the tough Ukrainian. Another one, like Katie Rowland, who could well be at the 2016 Olympics.

Nikki Adams who defeated Katie Rowland earlier in the week won again today 15:11 over Stoyka Petrova of Bulgaria.

Insofar as Taylor is concerned it is worth noting that Gulsum Tatar of Turkey is still going strong in the 64kg - today defeating England's Natasha Jonas 12-11 in an excellent accounter. My own view remains that both these two will represent their country in London 2012 (if of course they qualify).

Tomorrow Queen Underwood represents the USA in the PanAmerican championships - will be interesting to see if she qualifies to represent them in the Olympic qualifier in China.

The Irish team did reasonably well but are certainly hampered by a lack of funding (Taylor apart). The IABA really needs to fully appreciate that if there is to be a successor to Taylor then that will only happen if they do fund the team throughout the year.One cannot reasonably expect them to work miracles in major championships like the European if they do not participare on a regular basis in UK and rest of Europe as well as in Ireland.

Of course a few individual clubs do send their boxers to these places (eg: Geesala/Ryston and a few others) but not every club can aford to do so and funding must come from central funds.

Not sending such as Rowland,Walsh etc to the European Championships in orenburg was not helpful.,even if the tournament was only notified after the IABA drew up their seasons funding.

Let us sincerely hope that future funding will be high on the agendas to be discussed at Sunday's IABA Annual Congress in Donegal.There needs to be at least one woman elected to the IABA Exec Committee plus another one or two women coaches.

Despite the loss to Adams - who is after all world no 2,- Rowland is "the one to watch" for the future.

Should be agreat day's boxing tomorrow. Some interesting finals apart from Taylor v Ochigava.

Mike
Rotterdam - Friday

walshb

Thank you, Mike.

Do you know if this fight is being shown on television or online?

Johner

Katie won 10-5

walshb

Brilliant brilliant brilliant!

mjon3105

Sorry Bren. Was actually in Rotterdam for the European championships so did not see your query until now. Yes it was streamed (see my comment 19th) and hopefully they will soon have it again either on YOU TUBE or the EWBC.EU website.

Taylor was well on top throughout and Team Taylor got the tactics just right. Here are just a few comments both in Rotterdam and when back home that illustrate how well prepared she was. Ochigava was nowhere nearly as good as she was when winning the 2 worlds at a different weight and two thoughts come to mind : (1) she is not a natural 60kg fighter and (2) Taylor was in total control and never allowed her an opportunity to do what she(Russian) wanted to do.

Fair dues though Ochigava was very gracious in defeat here. She has a great respect for Taylor as is the case in reverse.

For me though one thing stood out even before the start and that was that Taylor looked for the first time I can recall "totally relaxed" before the fight. She has much more confidence in her own ability yet is never over confident and prepares for each and every fight as if it is the most important one ever. Against Falk in the semi she really was enjoying herself - especially in the last round when she had forged well ahead.

Let us not forget the huge sacrifices she and - her family - made throughout her career and more especially in the early formative years when she had no sponsors and before the IABA and ISC came on board,with their now excellent support.

Some media quotes from Taylor camp after the final and since back home:

"We studied all of Ochigava’s fights out here this week and the important thing was that Katie remained patient" (Peter Taylor)

"The Russian girl wanted her to come forward but Katie stayed composed and implemented the tactics. We had to hold her back at one stage as she wanted to go for her but that would have played into her hands. "(Peter Taylor)

Katie Taylor : "Sofya is one of the best opponents I have ever met and I’m absolutely thrilled with the win, I can’t believe it really.

"She said to me after the final that ‘we can be friends now’ "

"Obviously, we are rivals inside the ring, but we really get on very well outside the ring. She's a lovely person as well as fantastic boxer."

"It’s always a great feeling to win. In fact, it gets better every time. There was a lot of pressure on me going into this tournament and that pressure was there again this week.

"Each day you have to pick yourself up mentally for a new contest and a new challenge, but that’s where my preparation and experience comes in.

I have competed in quite a lot of major international tournaments and I have the experience of dealing with that pressure now. I make sure that I am prepared well and I focus on one fight at a time."

and on her immediate future :-

"I’ll take a few weeks off now and then we’ll begin to prepare for the World Championships and Olympic qualifiers. That will be the biggest tournament of my life"

"It's always a great feeling to win. In fact, it gets better every time. There was a lot of pressure on me going into this tournament and that pressure was there all week.

"I would like to thank my dad and the other coaches.Without them I wouldn't have done it because you need world-class coaches in your corner when you're boxing world-class opponents.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without God, either. All the glory from this victory goes to God.

Those then the thoughts "Team Taylor"..... Irish Team Manager Anna Moore had this to say:

“Katie is boxing at another level than what she was at last year and she was absolutely exceptional. The entire squad are on a high after this win and we’re absolutely thrilled”.

Let us however also not forget that Ochigava did (genuinely) suffer that serious injury which kept her out of the sport for almost a year. She looked fit physically,but mentally? Can one really be in the right frame of mind after but two minor tournaments in past 12 months?

If anything I thought that Taylor had even more in hand than the 10-5 verdict suggests had she wanted to win by a bigger margin (though this time no problems with the scoring).

That said it would be doing Taylor a great disservice to suggest that she is now sure of Gold either in the Chinese qualifier OR in london 2012 ...and do not rule out Ochigava either as a major challenger as with Queen Underwood, Turkey's Gulsum Tatar and Natasha Jonas.Plus the number of others who will move up or down from other weights many as yet unknown in Western Europe.


Great tournament in Rotterdam; lovely city,and absolutely fantastic pro-Taylor support not only from the Irish team and management but also from the Dutch,Italians,French and British. The Irish team (and Management) really were in full voice singing their support and others joined in with chants of "Ole,Ole,Ole" in front of a sell out 2,500 crowd at the Topsport Centrum Arena next door to Feijenoord Stadion( better known to football fans by its nickname De Kuip)

Hope you managed to see the fight online or on TV if indeed RTE showed it. I did not see anyone from RTE or mainstream Irish media there though some BBC, Channel 4 and other British media organisations were to be seen on final days...Really well organised tournament by the Dutch Federation in this their 100th year. A fitting celebration of that event and overall almost certainly the best women's amateur boxing action ever in Europe.

walshb

Thanks, Mike, for that detailed reply.

I guess now it's a case that women's boxing is really quite competitive, and getting more competitive, and there will be no easy matches come 2012 in London. Katie is still in my view a warm favorite. Nothing certain. I would equate her now to Novak Djokovic in tennis. He is the best at the moment, but the other three lads are all capable of beating him on their day. Queen Underwood remains a real threat, particularly strength wise.

mjon3105

I agree. Interestingly though Queen Underwood was defeated Saturday night by Kiria Tapia of Puerto Rico in the Pan-American Championships as you will see from this report in the leading Womens World Boxing site I occasionally contribute to, the excellent : wban.org. Indeed all three United States representatives were defeated early in the competition:

http://womenboxing.com/NEWS2011/news102311amateurs-usaboxing.htm

As we have both said before, anything can - and probably will - happen between now and London 2012. So far Taylor is keeping 'ahead of the game' .... long may it continue...but it will be tough on the road to London (via China!)

walshb wrote: »

Thanks, Mike, for that detailed reply.

I guess now it's a case that women's boxing is really quite competitive, and getting more competitive, and there will be no easy matches come 2012 in London. Katie is still in my view a warm favorite. Nothing certain. I would equate her now to Novak Djokovic in tennis. He is the best at the moment, but the other three lads are all capable of beating him on their day. Queen Underwood remains a real threat, particularly strength wise.