Congratulations to Joe Ward who won a silver medal after losing out to Julio La Cruz in the light-heavyweight final at the World Elite Championships in Hamburg, Germany.
The Cuban, who has now won four World gold medals on the bounce and whose defence mechanism is right up there with Floyd Mayweather, beat the Irish captain on a unanimous decision in the 81kg gold medal match – 30-27,30-27,29-28,29-28,29-28.
23-year-old Ward will grow further with this week’s success. This year has been kind to him when last year in Rio was so cruel. A European gold and a world silver in the last 12 months probably ranks as one of the greatest recoveries in Irish boxing. And Ward has also Cruz in his sights in the next Olympic cycle.
Two Irish boxers, Sean McComb and Brendan Irvine, lost out to eventual medallists in the preliminaries in Hamburg. Andy Cruz-Gomez of Cuba, who claimed gold, beat McComb and Korea’s Inkyu Kim, who outpointed Irvine, will be taking home bronze.
