Walsh confident Irish boxers can provide Olympic delight
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
HIGH performance coach Billy Walsh has underscored his belief that all six of Ireland’s boxing team can come home with medals from the Olympics in London.
By Brendan Mooney
The team assembled at the National Stadium yesterday for the final time before they head off to the final pre-Olympic training camp in Assisi, from where they travel to London.
The five men who have qualified were all present at boxing headquarters where the IABA president, Tommy Murphy, spoke of the high expectations.
“All the members of this team have been so successful and Irish boxing, in general, has been so successful that there are some people out there who expect us to come back from the London Olympics with six medals,” he said.
“I suppose that, in itself, is a tribute to the team.”
Billy Walsh was not going to talk numbers but he insisted that each member of the team had the ability to win a medal.
“John Joe Nevin was very young when he went to the Olympic Games in Beijing four years ago and he keeps reminding me of the Olympic qualifiers in Pescara ‘you keep telling me I’m not supposed to be here — your time is London’ but he went through that competition and won the gold medal,” he said.
“Now his only problem is that this is London and he probably feels a little bit of pressure but he knows he has been a world medallist twice now. He is a phenomenal talent.
“He was within a countback of being in the final last time and the previous time he was one point away from being in the final so he’s not far away from being a world finalist which, in this case, is an Olympic finalist.
“Michael Conlan has been the most improved boxer in the country for the last two years,” he enthused. “When he joined high performance he just blossomed.
“Obviously Paddy (Barnes) has the pedigree, Darren (O’Neill) has been around the blocks and John Joe Nevin is twice a world medallist so you expect those guys to perform.
“I have known Adam (Nolan) since he was a baby — I trained him as a kid to win his first Irish title at 11 so I always knew he had talent.
“There is pressure and expectation on him on him because I’m from Wexford and I see the banners and the posters — massive life-size pictures of him — around The Ballagh just outside Wexford town so the expectations are high and that’s why we are getting him out of here and away from all that. But, having said that, he’s level headed enough.
“He managed it well through the qualifiers so hopefully he’ll manage it for London.
“Darren O’Neill is another who is very experienced. His time has arrived. He is 27 years of age and he is at the peak of his powers.”
Walsh referred back to the quarter final of the European championships where O’Neill turned in the performance of his life to outpoint Sergey Derevyanchenko (Ukraine) 7-6 and went on to make the final.
“I have great belief in those boxers. I watch them every day.
“I know what they are capable of and we, as coaches — Pete (Taylor) is there as well — we build that belief in themselves.
“It’s not about our opposition — it’s about us and how good we can be. What we are very good at, we make ourselves very, very good at, and we make it as difficult as possible for those guys to beat us.
“The whole belief and ethos of the team is about ourselves, building up our own belief and our own confidence so we can deliver our best performance.
“But we need a bit of luck in the draw. It’s crucial for us. We need to get a good draw to get it started. We don’t want to be fighting the best in the world — yes we can beat them — but it’s nice to get into the tournament, get a fight under your belt, see what your opposition are like and then make plans from there.
“We are capable of beating anybody on our day but then anybody is capable of beating us as well. If the mind is not in the right place — as happened to Kilkenny on Sunday — everyone will beat you.”
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
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