National Stadium IT'S official: Ireland are the top amateur boxing Nation in the European Union following a hat-trick of gold medal wins at the National Stadium in Dublin yesterday.

Irish captain Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland, and Roy Sheahan had the fans dancing in the aisles as Ireland captured a hat-trick of golds as Ireland finished on top of the medal podium.

Welterweight Roy Sheahan claimed Ireland's first gold of the tournament after his 69kg clash with Xavier Noel was stopped in the fourth because an injury to the French man.

The opening round of this contest was more akin to a cagey game of chess with both boxers scoring just one point apiece. Sheahan found his range with two solid rights in the second and then landed another thudding right near the end of the round to go five-three ahead. But Noel reduced the deficit early in the third, and Sheahan, a two-times national senior champ, took a standing count after a body shot as the French man levelled the bout at seven all.

It was in the balance in the fourth and final round and Sheahan took the gold after the fight was stopped because of a cut over Noel's right eye with both boxers locked at 10 each.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland was next into the ring and the St Saviours OBA Dublin man didn't leave his country down with a controlled display of boxing against English number one James Degale.

The opening round was a see saw affair but Sutherland edged ahead by two points with a fine left upper cut close to the bell. The Irish middleweight-ranked third in Europe- extended that margin to three points by the end of the third, but Degale landed two swift lefts to leave it at one point.

Sutherland found an extra gear to extent his lead to five points in the third round but the fourth was still in the balance and Degale was throwing caution to the wind.

However, Sutherland landed two fine upper cuts near the end of a top class four rounder en route to landing Ireland's second gold. and recording his third win on the trot over the Englishman.

Irish captain Ken Egan produced a controlled performance to dominated Romanian Bejenaru Constantin, the silver medal winner from last year's EU Championships in Hungary.

Egan, from Neilstown in Dublin, has now won two golds and took the opening three rounds (7-3, 14-9, 20 30) before being handed a 2317 victory. The crowd were on their feet at the end as the Irish captain ensured that the boys in green finished on top at headquarters.

Carl Frampton was the first Irish boxer into the ring against Khedafi Dielkhir of France but, despite a brave performance from the Ulsterman, he had to be content with silver.

Frampton, from the Midlands White City club in Belfast, was leading 13-12 at the end of the second round but a thrilling toe-to-toe third saw Deilkhir reverse the opening two rounds to lead by five points at the bell.

Dielkhir, a bronze medal winner at the 2004 EU Championships, then got the better of another furious exchange of punches in the fourth forcing Frampton into a standing count en route to landing the first gold of the tournament for France.

Gary Keegan, who directs the highly successful Irish Amateur Boxing Associations High Performance Programme, said he was delighted with some of the performances from the eleven-man Irish squad at the Championships.

"There has been some fantastic performances for Irish boxers at these Championships and the medal wins speak for themselves, " he said. We were in against some of the top amateur boxers in the world at this tournament the team performed with distinction at the National Stadium this week.

"We are thrilled with the medal wins and it has been an outstanding week for Irish amateur boxing."