Army heavyweight Danny O’Brien accepted his bronze medal at the World Military Games in Wuhan, China today.
The Dubliner was edged on a majority decision by Kazakhstan’s Abazal Kuttybekov in the 91kg semi-final yesterday.
The fight was stopped and went back to the scorecards after both men sustained cuts in the second round following an accidental clash of heads and the man from Central Asia got the nod from three of the five judges.
Kuttybekov was stopped by Uzbekistan’s Mediyar Saydrakhimov in the first round of the heavyweight final today.
O’Brien won three fights en route to the podium.
Image: Danny O’Brien proudly displaying his medal with Phil Sutcliffe who was working Ireland’s corner with John Molloy in Wuhan.
(O’Brien’s grandfather once trained Sutcliffe, a two-time Irish Olympian and two-time European Elite medallist.)
Commandant Adrian Watson, the Irish team manager in Wuhan, described Sutcliffe as “an excellent tradesman in his chosen skill” and praised the Army boxing team and staff in China.
O’Brien joins William Egan (silver), Michael Kelly (gold), James Philips (bronze), Tommy Sheehan (bronze) and Henry Coyle (gold) as an Irish World Military boxing medallists since 1995.
Egan, brother of Beijing 2008 finalist Kenny, was shaded (7-5) under the old computer scoring system by Russia’s Andrey Gogolev in welter final in Rome 24 years ago.
Six years after that win, Gogolev beat pro boxing legend Carl “The Cobra” Froch (semi-finals) en route to gold at the 2001 World Elites in Belast.
The Irish squad are due to arrive home next Wednesday,
