Moylette now targets Olympic gold after famous European victory

EUROPEAN champion boxer Ray Moylette returned home to a hero’s welcome on Saturday – and has set his sights on winning Olympic gold.

The St Anne’s Boxing Club member was greeted by huge crowds in his native Islandeady and in Westport after flying in from Turkey.

There were also scenes of jubilation in Dublin Airport, where an ‘advance party’ of family, friends and club-mates met him on Saturday morning.

“I said I’m not going to mention medals at the World Championships, but I never said anything about the Olympics!” he told an ecstatic crowd in the Castlecourt Hotel.

“I’d like Olympic gold and we’re going to celebrate that one in style!”

Moylette and his fellow European champion Joe Ward (Moate) will be on TV3’s ‘Ireland AM’ programme at 8.15am this morning (Tuesday).

He flies to Crete on Thursday for a much-deserved holiday, and will rest his injured right hand.

“It’s every boxer’s dream to go to the Olympics,” he said on arrival in Westport on Saturday.

When the crowd confirmed that they were not “sick” of turning out for Moylette’s by-now regular homecomings, he said amid laughs and cheers: “Well, we’ll go to the Olympics so!”

The 21-year-old marked his victory over Englishman Thomas Stalker in Friday’s European light-welterweight final by performing a spectacular hand-stand in the ring.

He told The Mayo News that he hopes his outstanding display in Turkey has put him “on the plane to Baku”, capital of Azerbaijan, site of next September’s World Championships, which is the first Olympic qualifier.

The clearly emotional 2008 World Youth champion said that the support he has received from family, friends, club members and supporters “means the world” to him .

“I dedicate this medal to ye,” he told the delighted crowd. “I’m going to win the next one for myself, but this one is for ye!”

Daniel Carey

Courtesy: The Mayo News