Seaward earns Tokyo place with NI record
crown and this one is real.
Fury said afterwards he is “almost sure” Wilder will fight him for a third time.
The conclusive nature of the victory cast doubt over the value of Wilder’s rematch clause, with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn immediately suggesting a unification fight against Fury needs to happen.
But Fury believes he will step into the ring with Wilder once again. “The spoils of war are fresh,” he said. “I need to enjoy this victory and Deontay needs time to recover. But I’m almost sure he’ll take the rematch because he’s a dynamite puncher and he can take someone out.
“With that level of danger, you can always win a fight. I’m sure we’ll do it again if he wants to. If he doesn’t want to, I’m happy with whatever my promoters say. Whoever’s next gets the same treatment, that’s for sure.”
Fury added: “Big shout-out to Deontay Wilder, he came here, he manned up and showed the heart of a champion.
“I hit him with a clean right hand and dropped him and he got back up and battled on into round seven. He is a warrior, he will be back, he will be a champion again. But I will say, the king has returned to the top.”
Wilder’s defeat was the first of his 44-fight professional career.
The only other bout the 34-year-old has not won was the first meeting with Fury in 2018, which ended in a controversial draw after Wilder was out-boxed by his opponent.
Wilder said: “I make no excuses, I’ve got a lot of complications. I will come back and be stronger the next time around.
“This is what big-time boxing is all about, the best must fight the best. I appreciate all the fans that came out and supported the show.”
Wilder was unhappy that the towel came in when it did.
He said: “I just wish my corner would have let me go out on my shield. I’m a warrior. Even the greatest have lost and came back, that is just part of it.”
KEVIN Seaward became the third Northern Ireland marathon runner to qualify for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics with a superb run in yesterday’s Seville Marathon, where he set a new NI record of two hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
The St Malachy’s man (34) joins Holywood’s Paul Pollock and Belfast’s Stephen Scullion, who have already qualified for Tokyo.
Seaward’s time broke the NI record, which had been set recently by Pollock in Valencia, by some 15 seconds.
His achievement places him second in the all-time Irish list behind John Treacy.
Seaward, who was just outside the medals in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, said that he could not quite believe his time, which took a massive three and a half minutes off his previous best .
The Loughborough-based teacher (above) faced a worldclass field in Seville and went through the halfway mark in 51st place in a conservative 65 minutes and 25 seconds.
The cautious approach paid dividends as he sped up in the second half to finish 25th ahead of Great Britain international Jonny Mellor.
His time was well within the
ARDS Swimming Club claimed the Dave McCullagh Memorial Trophy for best Irish team as the McCullagh International ended in Bangor.
The four-day meet was run to replicate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with heats in the evenings and finals in the mornings. The competition attracted a number of Irish and British stars as athletes gear up for Olympic Trials in April.
After a 100m backstroke Irish record on Saturday, Larne’s Danielle Hill (above) equalled her 50m freestyle Irish record of 25.29 to take gold ahead of Marlin’s Mona McSharry (25.83) and Maria Godden (26.78) of Kilkenny. Cookstown’s Calum Bain won the men’s 50m freestyle in 22.88, adding to his 50m butterfly gold from Saturday.
McSharry was back in the pool for the women’s 50m breaststroke final where she closed her meet with another silver medal
Olympic qualifying mark of two hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds in a race won by Ethiopia’s Mekuant Gebre in an outstanding 2.04.46.
Clonliffe’s Emma Mitchell and Springwell’s Neil Johnston were clear winners in the weekend’s Northern Ireland and Ulster Senior Cross Country Championships at an extremely windy though surprisingly firm University of Ulster, Coleraine.
NI 5,000m and 10,000m record holder Mitchell was making her first cross country appearance in over four years. Her performance did not reflect this, though, as she led a 200-strong women’s field in the 6k event from the start.
In the absence of last year’s winner Breege Connolly, the only thing up for decision was the margin of the 26-year-old’s victory, which as it turned out was 49 seconds in a time of 24 minutes and nine seconds.
Next home was marathon specialist Catherine Whoriskey, who beat Lauren Wilson.
North Down took the team title for a fourth successive year, holding off Beechmount with City of Derry Spartans third.
Johnston took the men’s 12k event in 44 minutes and 47 seconds, 19 seconds ahead of Annadale’s Eskander Turki.
Newcastle won the team event, depriving runners-up City of Derry Spartans a fourth successive victory. in 31.66. Loughborough’s Sarah Vasey took the win in 31.12.
Adam Peaty continued his dominance of the 50m breaststroke with a 27.01-second swim to claim gold. Stirling’s Ross Murdoch posted 27.48 for silver while 200m breaststroke champion James Wilby was third in 27.72.
Luke Greenbank won his second backstroke gold in the 200m final in style in 1:57.51. Larne’s Conor Ferguson was second in 2:01.59 with National Centre Dublin’s Sean Scannell completing the podium in 2:04.20. City of Glasgow’s Katie Shanahan won the women’s event in 2:14.06.
Ards’ Amelia Kane won the women’s 400m freestyle final in 4:23.54.
Ards’ Grace Davison claimed her fourth and fifth gold medals in the girls’ 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke. In a fantastic battle with Templemore’s Rosie Whitten, she touched in 2:15.52 in the former. In the 200m backstroke, the 13-year-old clocked 3:30.88 ahead of City of Derry’s Maeve McClean (2:35.54).