{"id":836916,"date":"2026-08-01T02:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836916\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:40:17","slug":"going-for-gold-silver-linning-for-rock-mcconnell-and-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836916\/","title":{"rendered":"Going for Gold – Silver Linning for Rock, McConnell and Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Boxing Ireland<\/a><\/p>\n

Three Team NI boxers have won through to Saturday\u2019s Commonwealth Games finals.<\/p>\n

Kaci Rock, Jon McConnell and Michaela Walsh all swapped bronze for silver at least. <\/p>\n

Rock has up-graded her CWG medal from bronze. She was the 3-2 winner over Caitlin Rainey of Scotland in a tight, competitive semi final. <\/p>\n

Speaking after her bout she said: \u201cDown in the first round, and 3-2 in the second \u2013 I knew I needed them judges so I dug deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

She boxes for gold at 11:30am on Saturday morning against England\u2019s Sasha Hickey.<\/p>\n

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Michaela Walsh\u00a0also up-graded her Glasgow medal. The defending featherweight champion was dominant throughout her 5-0 win over Fiji\u2019s Jasmine Daunakamakama to step up the podium. Judge scored the bout<\/p>\n

Speaking on getting out of the ring, the four time medal winner said \u201cAmazing. I remember getting to the final in Glasgow 2014 against Nicola Adams. The atmosphere and the people were amazing. It was a great fight today. I was nervous, I was \u2013 I\u2019m nervous every fight. I felt it a bit more today, I don\u2019t know why. I\u2019m just happy I got in there and stuck to the game plan.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jon McConnell\u00a0is assured of at least a 70kg silver medal, following a masterclass performance in his semi final against Scotland\u2019s Sonny Kerr where he got the UD win on a scoreline of 27:30; 27:20; 28:29; 27:30; 27:30. <\/p>\n

The Belfast boxer says: \u201cIt was a lot more straightforward that last time, with the point off. I boxed well; didn\u2019t really get out of first gear to be honest with you. I know I had the first two rounds won. He\u2019s a quality lad. A big push tomorrow and go from there\u201d. Jon, of Holy Trinity BC Belfast, is back in action on Saturday, contesting his final against Wales Orlando Holley-Sotomi<\/p>\n

Jude Gallagher\u00a0will come home from Glasgow with bronze, on the narrowest of margins. He boxed a high tempo, highly physical semi final against Tryagain Morning Ndevelo of Namibia<\/p>\n

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The Two Castle left it all in the ring with high intensity 1st and 2nd rounds, and a powerhouse 3rd, and a powerhouse third round. Judges awarded the 3-2 decision to Ndevelo, scored: 28:29; 28:29; 30: 26; 30:27; 28:29, reflecting a 10-8 third round score from the Slovakian judge.<\/p>\n

Heavyweight\u00a0Garyn McAllister\u00a0will return with a bronze medal. He contested a tough, physical semi final against Connor Williams of Wales \u2013 the UD went to the Welsh athlete on a scoreline of 29:28; 29:27; 30:27; 30:27; 29:28. Garyn has had a superb Commonwealth Games journey and can rightly be proud.<\/p>\n

Superheavy, Willie John McCartan, will also come home with bronze. He was due to contest his semi-final this evening against England\u2019s Damar Thomas, but was withdrawn this morning through injury.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy of Boxing Ireland Three Team NI boxers have won through to Saturday\u2019s Commonwealth Games finals. Kaci Rock,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,16742,85],"class_list":["post-836916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}