Boxer"s pledge to return to school with his bronze

Olympic medal-winning boxer Darren Sutherland has vowed to return with his bronze medal to the school in Dunboyne where he sat his Leaving Certificate four years ago. The middleweight boxer returned to school at St Peter"s, Dunboyne, as a 20 year-old, to sit his Leaving Certificate as a route to third-level education and an elite performance athlete scheme at Dublin City University. 'I want to show them what hard work can do,' the boxer, whose family now lives in Navan, said in Beijing last week. Two months ago, Darren returned to the school where he was named student of the year four years ago to address the students and present the end-of-year awards. This week, principal Eamonn Gaffney congratulated his former pupil and said he will be taking him up on his offer. 'We took him in to do his Leaving Certificate at the age of 20,' Mr Gaffney said. 'I don"t know why I did, it was an unusual thing to do, but his sister was a student here at the school and I listened to what he had to say because of that.' Mr Gaffney said that Darren was a young man who seemed to be serious about where he wanted to go in life, and needed help and direction. 'It was a very difficult thing for him, to go back to secondary school, wearing the uniform again after being so long out of the education system. And he needed some confidence-building. He was very receptive and responsive and became very popular and a role model to the pupils, and was selected by staff as the student of the year, which was well received by the students.' And Mr Gaffney said the school benefited from him as much as he did from it. 'We all learned from each other.' The principal congratulated Darren on his bronze medal and said he hopes that he has continued success in his life, as he has both the sporting and educational means to do so. 'He has a hugely positive attitude.' About seven years ago, having dedicated most of his teenage years to boxing, Sutherland became disillusioned with the sport and found that he had nothing to fall back on. He hadn't even a second-level education, never mind a third-level one. He decided to go back to school in an effort to improve his prospects, and successfully completed his Leaving Certificate in Dunboyne before gaining admission to Dublin City University as part of its 'elite performance athlete' programme. He 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. On returning home, he 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 laughed. Sutherland started studying full-time 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. He has been living on campus in Dublin City University since starting college there. Success in five fights saw him take a gold medal at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens in April and he says the joy is back in his boxing again. Since then, he has been in intensive training in Dublin and had a rare visit to his Navan-based family for his 26th birthday in late April. He intends turning professional following his Olympics appearance. Sinn Féin town councillor in Navan, Peadar Tóibín, meanwhile, has tabled a motion for next week"s meeting of the council to request an official reception to welcome Sutherland back to Navan. 'Darren"s wonderful achievement is a source of great pride for the whole country and for the town of Navan, and an extraordinary achievement,' he said. 'Darren has served as a terrific role model for thousands of Irish children showing them the benefits of dedication, perseverance and self belief. Darren has provided us with many vivid and dramatic memories and is a timely reminder of the important role sporting organisations play in our community,' Cllr Toibin said. Other members of the Irish Olympic team with Meath connections were Michelle Carey, whose family live in Trim, and who was last in her heat in the first round of the 400 metre hurdles; fencer Siobhan Byrne, whose family is from Slane, who was the first athlete to exit the games in the first round of the sabre, and canoeist Eoin Rheinisch, who just missed out on a medal when fourth in the Slalom K1, who is a nephew of Pat Rheinisch of Rathmore. James Lindsay Fynn from Carrollstown, Dunderry, was a member of the four-men British lightweight rowing team that finished fifth in their competition.