Portlaoise pair Harty and O’Reilly record strong runs in National Intermediate Championships

PORTLAOISE Boxing Club’s Johnny Harty and Cody O’Reilly both enjoyed very impressive runs in this season’s National Intermediate Championships.

While the latter made it as far as the semi-finals of the 60kg division, Harty fought his way to the 65kg title bout where he was eventually pipped on a 3-2 split decision by Aodhan Byrne of Kilcullen.

Opening up his campaign with a unanimous 5-0 victory over Erne’s Cameron Suttle, Harty continued on to beat Fionn Duffy of St. Joseph’s Derry by the same margin in the quarter-finals.

That secured him further passage to Friday night’s semi-finals in which he surmounted the challenge of Chris McCabe of Santry 5-0, a performance that very much impressed Portlaoise head coach, Pat Ryan.

“Johnny did everything we asked of him and he controlled the contest throughout. He's an exceptionally skilful boy and he used all the right tools to get through that semi-final,” he told the Laois Nationalist.

Yet his hopes of lifting the prize came undone against Aodhan Byrne in the decider, Ryan insisting a slow start to the contest was the undoing of his young protégée on that occasion.

“In the final he lost the first round, and we changed tactics then to put him [Byrne] on the back foot,” said Ryan.

“He went forward more because he had to try to dictate, score a lot more and follow up on his attacks in different ways, and he did all of that. In the last round, I have to say Johnny was absolutely outstanding, and if he had worked a little bit harder in the first and second, there would have been no question about who was the better boy.

“For me, looking at Johnny, and knowing what he is capable of, he just didn't deliver his A performance on the night. But he’s still a young man. He’s a 19-year-old and he doesn't have a whole lot of senior contests. He's had another three or four now and I think next year he's going to be a lot stronger and he'll become an awful lot more powerful as well,” he predicted.

Cody O’Reilly, meanwhile, recorded an impressive 5-0 victory over Andres Clemenger from Smithfield in the quarter-finals of the 60kg class to set up a clash against the highly-rated Martin McDonagh of Avona in the last four of the competition.

Despite a gritty display, O’Reilly was unable to navigate his way beyond that challenge, McDonagh securing further passage to the final in which he saw off Togher’s Joseph O’Brien.

For Ryan, the experience of going up against such a class opponent will only serve O’Reilly well in his preparation for next year’s National Under 23 Championships.

“Cody boxed an exceptional good boy in Martin McDonagh. He’s an extremely talented boxer with a number of All-Irelands.

“I think Cody probably put in his best performance against Martin and there was very little in the contest. Some small little things could have gone in his favour, but you really have to have that confidence when you're boxing such a quality boy, and Cody had that for most of the fight.

“It's a great learning experience for him, and he’ll now be getting ready for the Under 23 Championships,” said Ryan.

Yet prior to that, both O’Reilly and Harty, together with their Portlaoise clubmates, Kevin Pukuta, Patrick McDonagh and Jimmy Doyle will be turning their attention to their upcoming trip to Sweden for a tournament in Stockholm on Sunday 20 December.

The three-day trip will bring, with it, top class competition and a great experience for these boxers, all of whom will be gearing up for another big year ahead.