Walsh left ‘shattered’ as O’Rourke lands top job

BILLY WALSH, the face of Irish boxing in recent years, was yesterday considering his future as Head Coach after failing to nail down the position of Director of High Performance.

In a surprise decision that sent shockwaves throughout Irish sport, Walsh lost out to Dominic O’Rourke, President of the IABA, in his bid to replace his close associate, Gary Keegan, who parted company with the IABA after the Beijing Olympics and now heads up the Institute of Sport.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” he said. “I have been with High Performance for seven years and I have been doing the job of the High Performance Director for the past 20 months without any payment for it.”

It emerged yesterday the association will have to fund the position themselves after it was confirmed that the Irish Sports Council is no longer willing to foot the bill.

In an unusual move the ISC wrote to the IABA earlier this month informing them they were unhappy with the recruitment process and were no longer prepared to fund the positions of chief executive and the Director of High Performance.

This was confirmed yesterday by Paul McDermott in a brief statement on behalf of the ISC.

“Earlier this month the Irish Sports Council wrote to the IABA stating that it was not prepared to fund the positions of CEO and of Director of High Performance in 2010 as it was unhappy with the recruitment processes for the two posts.

“The Council was not part of the selection procedures and has no role in ratifying, endorsing or supporting the appointments.”

Last year the Irish Sports Council put €1.2m into High Performance and this year the allocation was €700,000 for the High Performance Plan and another €550,000 for Carded Athletes.

They were not represented on the interview board and obviously had no desire to be involved following the Athletics Ireland debacle that went all the way to the High Court. It is understood that they were invited to have a member on the board for the final interviews.

Yesterday Billy Walsh admitted he was shattered by decision of the IABA, particularly as he carried out the duties of the High Performance Director as well as his own duties as Head Coach for the past 20 months.

During that time High Performance produced a collection of medals that included world championship gold medals for Katie Taylor, Joe Ward (junior) and Ray Moylette (youths); a bronze medal for John Joe Nevin at last year’s world championships; European gold for Taylor and Jason Quigley (junior); three bronze medals at the last European championships in Liverpool; and three gold, three silver and three bronze at last year’s EU championships when Ireland emerged as the top nation.

He had a close relationship with the previous Head of High Performance, Gary Keegan and with the addition of the technical coach, Zaur Antia from Georgia, Jim Moore, who headed up the junior unit, and an enthusiastic team that included a physio, strength and conditioning coach and sports psychologist, they put an exciting programme in place.

It was put in place with ISC funding after the Sydney Olympics where Michael Roche was Ireland’s only boxer to qualify but it was too close to the Athens Olympics in 2004 when Ireland again had just one boxer, Andy Lee, at the Games.

Come 2008, however, the programme reaped riches beyond the highest dreams at the Beijing Olympics when Kenneth Egan won a silver medal and Paddy Barnes and the late Darren Sutherland each won bronze medals.

In fact the last time that Ireland failed to win a medal at any international championships was at the world championships in Chicago in 2007.

All the indications were that Billy Walsh would lead Ireland’s boxers into London 2012 when they would build on the success of Beijing but now that could be in doubt although yesterday he was in the High Performance Unit on South Circular Road preparing the boxers for the European championships.

“I am still the Head Coach and I am focused on getting my boxers ready for the European championships in Moscow,” he said. “I fully expect to be in their corner. That hasn’t changed. My main focus is on the training of the boxers and making sure they have the best preparation as usual.”