Portlaoise boxer Casey triumphant at Four Nations Championships

Rosaletta Casey of Portlaoise Boxing Club enhanced an already rapidly growing roll of honour when she scooped gold at this month’s Four Nations Championships in Scotland.

Lining out in the 46kg division, Casey surmounted the challenge of home fighter, Michaela Arthur on a unanimous 5-0 decision in the semi-finals before prevailing on a 3-2 split against England’s Edie Mayes in the decider.

Delighted with the performance of the Portarlington girl, Portlaoise Boxing Club head coach, Pat Ryan told The Laois Nationalist “In the semi-finals Rosaletta kept it long range, kept managing her distance very well and used the right combinations.

“She’s is a very intellectual young girl. She was feinting and teasing, and was very smart to get her opponent to change her balance. She was always making sure that her opponent’s feet were in the wrong place, keeping her off balance.

“The final was a very tight fight. It was a penny on a ledge, but Rosaletta dug deep and that's what she does do very well.

“She started really well and attacked more often. When she attacks, she's always going to throw an extra one or two punches to win the exchange, and that's what she did.

“The English girl, Mayes was very good as well, a very good southpaw, but the good thing for me is that Rosaletta has been training with southpaws.

“Her first cousin, Paul Casey, is a national champion now and he’s a very good southpaw, so Rosaletta did the things that she needed to do to get it over the line. This is about understanding how to win, and that's what separated the two in the end really” he said.

The Girls Four Nations was making a return this year and Ryan was unambiguous as to how important this competition is to the international boxing programme.

“The Four Nations Championship stopped 20 years ago and that should never have happened” he insisted.

“To box in the Tri-Nations, Four Nations, and then to box in the Six Nations with Canada and France, were huge in giving our boxers massive experience and knowledge in learning how to win.

“Thankfully, our President of Boxing Ireland, Mr. Anto Donnelly, was instrumental in re-igniting the Four Nations Championships this year” he added.

Certainly the trip to Scotland this month provided Casey will another opportunity and platform on which to test her abilities against other strong international competitors.

A four-time national champion, she scooped a superb bronze medal at last year’s European Under 15 Championships in Montenegro, beating Poland’s Alicja Laniecka in the quarter-finals before losing out to Scotland’s Sinita Kaur in the semis.

And the young Portlaoise boxer will be hoping to secure a return to the European stage later in the year when she lines out in the National Senior Cadet Championships in August.

Ryan is confident she can serve up another great run in 2026, stressing “Rosaletta is becoming a very accomplished young girl. She has four All-Ireland titles and a European bronze medal.

“She's 46kg at the moment, but she's under that weight really. That's what she boxed at in the Four Nations, but she was giving away a little bit of weight.

“She’s proving a very difficult boxer to beat, and I think when she becomes the fully-fledged 46kg boxer, then she will really come into her own” he predicted.

Ryan was also quick to praise the Portlaoise coaching team that helps oversee Casey and other emerging boxers in Portlaoise, saying “I have to give huge credit to her father, Gerry Casey, Karl Lawless and John Dollard for their work with the Boy and Girl Ones, Twos and Threes. They've been doing a very good job.

“The most important thing for me is that they're all taking the direction of coaching. They do the right things and the better things” he said.

Portlaoise have already added five new national champions to their own roll of honour this year, and will be very hopeful of building on that as they gear up for the Under 19, Under 23, Intermediate, Senior and Elite Championships later in the year.

Yet first up will be the Monkstown International Box Cup at the start of the July, with the club expected to field more than 20 competitors in that competition.