Glasgow 2014: Northern Ireland boxing medals haul up to nine

Paddy Barnes, Steven Donnelly and Connor Coyle brought Northern Ireland's boxing medals haul up to nine at the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday night.

Light-flyweight holder Barnes stopped Papua New Guinea's Charles Keama before welterweight Donnelly stunned Canada's world number eight Custio Clayton.

Middleweight Coyle ended a glorious day of Northern Ireland wins by dominating South Africa's Siphiwe Lusizi.

Michael Conlan, Michaela Walsh and Alanna Audley-Murphy also secured wins.

Wednesday's Northern Ireland success followed the quarter-finals triumphs of Joe Fitzpatrick, Sean Duffy and Sean McGlinchy on Tuesday.

Northern Ireland's Glasgow boxing haul will comfortably exceed the previous record from Edinburgh in 1986 when the fighters brought home six medals although none of those were gold.

Northern Ireland boxers will also be fancying their chances of improving on the three gold medals from four years ago, which included Barnes's light-flyweight triumph.

And with nine boxing medals secured, the Northern Ireland team is certain to better the overall 10 medals achieve in Delhi four years ago, with judo player Lisa Kearney and the bowls triple, having already been on the podium in Glasgow.

Twice Olympic bronze medallist Barnes, 27, dominated from the off against the Papua New Guinean and after taking the opening round on all three cards, then forced two standing counts in the second round.

Another big right in the final round ended the contest after another superb performance by the Belfast fighter.

In the welterweight contest, Donnelly was up against the highest-ranked fighter in the division but the Canadian after losing a tight opening round, was then dominated by the Northern Irishman in the remainder of the bout.

Ballymena man Donnelly's footwork was hugely impressive and he was able to pick off Clayton in the third round as the Canadian noticeably tired.

Derry middleweight Coyle also produced a superb performance to dominate South African Lusizi and leave no doubt about the verdict at the finish.

Coyle's sharper punching earned him the first round as he refused to be distracted by Lusizi's verbal attempts to unnerve him.

A couple of big left hooks then stunned the South African in the second round as Coyle was awarded the round on a 10-8 scoreline by all three judges.

Coyle continued to pick off Lusizi in the final round despite his opponent's frantic attempts to land a big punch.

Earlier, bantamweight Conlan outclassed Uganda's Bashir Nasir before flyweight Walsh also had a unanimous quarter-final win, beating Jamaican Sarah Joy Rae.

Walsh, 21, became Northern Ireland's first female Games boxing medallist before Audley-Murphy's win over Dominica's Valerian Spicer.

Belfast woman Walsh was in control from the start of her quarter-final contest and eased to victory in the four rounds.

Audley-Murphy was involved in a close contest with Spicer and won on a split decision in her first bout of the Games.

The Belfast woman became the 50th Northern Ireland boxer to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Olympic bronze medallist Conlan was never tested against Nasir although he was not satisfied with his display.

"He was an awkward opponent but that was far away from being a good performance," said the 22-year-old.

"I was getting a bit bored coming into the final round although I had to be careful as he was very dangerous with his head.

"That's why it was a boring fight - I want to excel but I didn't want to get any cuts and so did what I needed to win."

Conlan will take on Sean McGoldrick of Wales in Friday's semi-finals.