Beijing-bound local boxer went back to school for Leaving

A BOXER who returned to second-level education in Dunboyne as a mature student to complete his Leaving Certificate has just qualified to represent Ireland in the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Darren Sutherland became disillusioned with boxing five years ago, and having dedicated most of his teenage years to the sport, found that he had nothing to fall back on. He hadn't even a second-level education, never mind a third-level one.

The 25-year-old, whose family lives in Navan, decided to go back to school in an effort to improve his prospects, and successfully completed his Leaving Certificate in St Peter's College in Dunboyne before gaining admission to Dublin City University as part of its 'elite performance athlete' programme.

Sutherland has had a varied and undeniably, interesting, youth as well as boxing career. Born to an Irish mother and a Caribbean father, he grew up in London and St Vincent in the Caribbean before the family returned to Dublin. Living in Mulhuddart, Darren did his Junior Certificate in Riversdale College in Blanchardstown. At the same time, he was boxing, and was spotted by coach Brendan Ingle, who brought him to Sheffield to train.

"I was boxing professionally, and studying part time for an A-level in sports studies," Darren explained. But, by the age of 19, he began getting disillusioned with boxing, and realised he had nothing to fall back on if it didn't work out. "I was academic-minded, and thought I should return to that route."

It's not that he had many reasons to be disillusioned with boxing. While he trained in England, he was proud of his Irish roots, and returned to Ireland to take part in competitions. He won Leinster and All-Ireland championships two years in a row, as well as the under 21 championships, and in 2002 was the top under-21 boxer in Ireland. He also represented the country internationally.

He returned home at 20 and found that his A-level was no good here, and he was too young for adult education. His younger sister was attending St Peter's College in Dunboyne, and he opted to go there to do his Leaving Certificate.

Going back to school with students five years younger than him was scary, he admits, but he soon settled in and enjoyed his time there immensely.

He hoped to remain in Ireland to study sports science afterwards, and had applied to DCU through the CAO system, but wasn't guaranteed any entry. "So I discovered that I could enter through an elite performance athlete direct entry programme, and the interview went well - they told me if I could box as good as I can talk I'll be going places," he laughs.

Darren started studying fulltime at DCU and the boxing took off again. But he was finding it very difficult to balance the two, boxing in the high performance unit and studying, and thought he would have to drop out of university.

"But we sat down with the lecturers and department heads and worked out a system where I could part-time study and full-time box," he says.

Four years into studying there, he is just today (Wednesday) about to embark on completing a major cramming to complete his second year exams in May. Ten weeks of intensive study are ahead of him, but he doesn't mind the break from boxing. He has missed quite a bit of college work as he has been in boxing preparation since November.

His exams in May will clash with training camp, but he hopes to be back in the camp at the start of June, with the European Championships taking place later that month. He holds a gold medal from last year's event.

Success in five fights saw him take a gold medal at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens last week and he says the joy is back in his boxing again. He had lost out in Italy a few months back, on what he and his team felt were scores that weren't accurate. He felt he had done enough to qualify and went into Athens more relaxed and confident, having addressed problems he felt arose during the world championships in November.

"I am now enjoying boxing again and feeling more refreshed," he says. And he can't wait to get to Beijing. "Others are happier for me than I have been because I haven't thought about it yet - it was business as usual. But it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and all I can do is ensure that I'm 100 per cent ready when the time comes, in the best form and shape I can do - it's open draw so I don't know who I'll be facing."

But he'll have time out for a bit of celebrating this weekend - he'll be joining his Navan based family, parents Linda and Anthony, and sisters Nicole and Shaneika, who live at Balreask Manor, to mark his 26th birthday.