Galway teen boxes way to European bronze medal

In a week when Katie Taylor was grabbing all the sporting headlines, a Galway teenager was boxing her way to a first European medal at the EU Junior Boxing Championships in Galati, Romania.

Aayilah Butler qualified to represent Ireland by winning the National Cadets title earlier this year. She got a great welcome when she brought her recently-won European Junior bantam weight bronze medal back to her home club in Monivea last weekend.

Accompanied by her parents Danny and Johanna and siblings Nicole and Daniel, Aayilah was officially welcomed home by Minister of State, Seán Canney TD, leas-cathaoirleach of Galway County Council, Cllr Gabe Cronnelly along with officials and coaches to the club’s impressive new headquarters which was decked out with banners, bunting and giant posters of the club’s boxing successes. A special cake was made and shared with all present.

The Galway boxer, who just turned 16 in March, defeated Andrea Alecu (Romania) and Elle Taylor (Wales) to qualify for the semi-final where she lost to the eventual gold medalist, Liana Tarasian of Russia. Last year narrowly missed the same championships when she was pipped on a 3-2 majority decision for Irish title.
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