Former World champion Carl Frampton has extended best wishes to Team Ireland and Kyle Smith ahead of the opening bell for the 2019 European Schoolboy/girl Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia next Sunday.
Team Ireland finished up their training camp at the Clann Naofa BC in Dundalk yesterday and leave from the Georgian capital on Thursday.
“All the best kid, do the business,” said Frampton who claimed silver for Ireland at the inaugural European Schoolboy Championships in Rome in 2003. “I’m right behind you – good luck.”
Frampton’s podium finish secured one of 101 medals for Ireland in 16 years of European Schoolboy/girl boxing.
“Carl’s a big hero to all the young lads, so it was lovely for him to do that for Kyle,” Holy Trinity coach Michael Hawkins told today’s Irish News.
“He’s promised to come down to the club some time after his next fight and meet the lads, so we’ll hopefully run a wee show and have a really good night.
“But, from Kyle’s point of view, this is a great opportunity in his first major international competition. He’s ready for it, and the wee lad is just mad about boxing -he absolutely loves it, but he’s very good at school as well. He’s very sporty, real all-rounder
(Images of the Irish squad at their training camp at the Clann Naofa BC yesterday)