IN A MEASURE OF his standing within his sport, Brett McGinty has been handed the captaincy of the Irish team for the European Youth Championships.
McGinty and the Irish team head out to Anapa, Russia on Sunday for the Championships with the in-form St Johnston man given the captaincy.
Last year, McGinty was captain of the Norther Ireland team at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa, where he won a silver medal.
That he was now been named as captain of the Irish team is a pointer as to just how highly-rated the Oakleaf ABC welterweight is.
McGinty recently won his seventh Irish title when he defeated Glasnevin’s Jordan Meredith in the National Under-18 Championships.
[adrotate group=”57″]On his way to the final there, he overcame former European Champions in Michale Nevin and Jordan Myers.
This year already, McGinty has also won his 12th Ulster title, defeating Daniel Bell in the decider, while he went to America and overcame Deonte Washington in April, having beaten the promising Welshman Jordan Thomas in Newport back in February.
The Deele College student is no stranger to the big stage.
Last year in Samoa, he was pipped to gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games by England’s Mohammed Harris Akbar having got over Ryan Scaife and Jack Gipp to get to the final flight.
Next week’s competition will be his third time to compete in Anapa and he’ll be aiming to erase the painful memories of 2014 when, in the European Junior Championships, he was the victim of a harsh judge against Mladam Sobjeslavski.
It was a decision, coming after he’d beaten Hungary’s Laszio Kozak, that left the Irish management seething.
McGinty already has a European medal. In 2012, he won a European Schoolboys bronze medal, when wins over Michael Katz of Israel and Gurgen Madoyan slotted him onto the medals table, but he succumbed to Russian Havazh Mutsolgov in the semi-finals.
McGinty is now regularly in the High Performance Units in Dublin and Jordanstown and he’ll lead the Irish team into Anapa. Familiar territory, but for McGinty the next step in a journey that’s only beginning.
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