Bronze for Donnelly after semi-final defeat

Steven Donnelly will return home with a bronze medal after his Commonwealth Games adventure finally came to an end.
Steven Donnelly lost his Commonwealth Games welterweight semi-final on Friday night.Steven Donnelly lost his Commonwealth Games welterweight semi-final on Friday night.
Steven Donnelly lost his Commonwealth Games welterweight semi-final on Friday night.

The Ballymena boxer was beaten by India’s Mandeep Jangra on a split decision in Friday night’s welterweight semi-final.

With a bronze medal already assured, Donnelly set about trying to secure his place in Saturday’s contest for gold and silver.

A frenetic opening round saw little between the boxers but Donnelly got the verdict of all three judges for the opening round.

As Donnelly attempted to build on that opening round, his opponent made a good start to the second round and even when the Ballymena boxer did throw shots, he found Jangra an elusive opponent as two of the judges awarded the round to the Indian.

In the third round, Steven once again found the movement of Jangra hard to get close to as the Indian’s freshness from having had a walkover in the quarter-final began to become apparent.

Speaking after the fight, a disappointed Donnelly said: “It could have gone either way,

“I thought I won the first round, he definitely won the second round but I thought I had done enough in the last round.

“I dug in that extar bit but I’m disappointed.

“I thought I could have gone all the way but I’m proud of myself where I have come from.

“My career is littered with achievements that I should be proud of but I really wanted that gold medal.

“But I’m happy in my life now compared with where I was and that’s the most important thing,” added Steven.

Despite the defeat, both Donnelly and his fellow bronze medallist, bowler Barbara Cameron, will be assured of rapturous welcomes when they return to Ballymena next week after outstanding performances from both.

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