Bernard Dunne is confident there are plenty of coaches good enough to fill the void in Irish boxing’s high performance unit after the loss of Eddie Bolger to Germany.

All may have appeared to have changed utterly in Irish boxing, but the presence of veteran Darren O’Neill in tonight’s National Elite Championship finals is both a link to glories of the recent past as well as the possibility of a brighter future.

The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) has a new president for the first time in 28 years after Swim Ireland’s Sarah Keane was swept in to the position with a vote at the body’s EGM in Dublin’s Conrad Hotel late last night.

Concerns over lasting impact and cost of hosting the 2016 Games

In Ireland, there is only one currency that trades at a profit when it comes to minority sports, so Fiona Doyle was front and centre with the general public last month when she won silver and bronze medals at the World University Games in Gwangju.

How Argentina’s men — coached energetically by Pat Spillane — had any emotions left after their extra-time victory in the international final is beyond me. But they did, and displayed the sort of joy you associate with their colourful soccer history.

Michael Conlan will know next month whether he intends to continue on his current road to Rio, or whether the frustrating vagaries of amateur boxing’s scoring system finally push him into the professional game.

Kevin Ankrom’s first contract as Athletics Ireland’s high performance manager expired last night as the first bars of Auld Lang Syne kicked off and, though there has been no announcement about a follow-up, the American is breezily confident about sticking around.

Ireland’s 2016 Olympic ambitions have received a €2 million cash injection that will allow sports to fund acclimatisation camps, meet competition costs and, in some cases, provide extra equipment for athletes targeting the Games in Brazil.

The Alltech World Equestrian Games (WEG) begin in Normandy, France, today, with 21 riders carrying Irish hopes.

Sports journalists, like the people they write or talk about, are creatures of habit. It’s human nature to lean on the familiar, of course, but this job sure does reinforce that point.

A series of changes have been announced to the qualification system for Olympic cycling with the aim of strengthening the competition across the road, track, BMX and mountain bike disciplines in time for the Rio Games in 2016.

From the solitude of Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands off the Galway coast, to the UCI’s World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland, 20-year-old Eoin Mullen could be forgiven for thinking this is all just a dream.

Billy Walsh hasn’t diluted his ambition of Ireland finishing top of the boxing medal table at the next Olympic Games despite the raft of changes which threaten to squeeze the number of qualifiers under his charge.

Now that Paul Galvin has hung up his inter-county boots and with more and more Irish sports people getting tattoos, who will now sport the best body art and why? We went in search of some answers.

Brian Nugent scratches his head and tries to tot up the number of days he has spent abroad with Irish cyclists this year — but can only offer a very rough estimate. “A lot,” he eventually settles for.

Congratulations to Tricia Mangan on her appointment as the next high performance director of the Irish Ladies Golf Union (ILGU).

The Irish Olympic Council were last night remaining tightlipped over claims made by golf chiefs that Rory McIlroy may only be eligible to compete for Ireland in the 2016 Rio Games.

Athletics Ireland chief executive, John Foley, has welcomed the comments and recommendations made in the 2012 Olympic review.

As expected, Katie Taylor was last night named the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year for 2012.

Double Paralympic gold medallist, Mark Rohan, has called for up-and-coming athletes to be prioritised at the expense of established sportspeople when the next raft of government funding is distributed.

But for Rory McIlroy’s solo march to his second major at Kiawah Island, golf’s final grand event of the season, the USPGA, might have been shunted into the sidings by the medals and records, inspiration and heartache of the London Olympics.

There were no tears or tantrums as Irish swimmer Gráinne Murphy bade farewell to the London Olympics last night.

BRITAIN’S Got Talent champions Spelbound washed off their body paint yesterday – then vowed to stay gold by winning the Olympics in 2016.

Britain's Got Talent champions Spelbound washed off their body paint today - then vowed to stay gold by winning the Olympics.

MATTEO MANASSERO, the player tipped to be Europe’s next golfing great, officially became a professional yesterday, two weeks after his 17th birthday and three days before he plays his home Italian Open.

Rugby sevens and golf were confirmed as new Olympic sports for the 2016 Games today.

Rugby sevens and golf were today confirmed as new Olympic sports for the 2016 Games.

THERE was a stunned reaction in Chicago last night as the news broke that the American city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics ended after the first round of voting in Copenhagen.

Barack Obama’s decision to fly to Copenhagen to persuade the International Olympic Committee to give the 2016 Games to Chicago ended in disappointment as the US city was knocked out in the first round of voting today.

US president Barack Obama lobbied Olympic leaders to give the 2016 Games to his home town Chicago, saying the US "is ready and eager to assume that sacred trust".

Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods are among 18 players to have outlined their personal support for golf's Olympic bid.

World rugby’s biggest stars would jump at the chance to take part in the Olympics, players’ chiefs have claimed.

INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge has said that those who hope for a 100% drug-free Olympic Games were ‘naive’ and that cheating was part and parcel of human nature.

Tiger Woods, initially thought to be lukewarm on the idea of golf in the Olympics, is one of a number of top players who featured in a video aired when representatives of the International Golf Federation formally presented their case to the International Olympic Committee Programme Commission in Lausanne today.

IF Federation Equestre Internationale president Princess Haya was selling a horse at Ballinasloe Fair next month, I doubt she would get many buyers, based on her recent promotion of equestrian sport.

Pele today threw his weight behind Rio de Janeiro’s bid for the 2016 Games by calling on the International Olympic Committee to choose a South American city for the first time.

The row over the spiralling cost of the London 2012 Olympics has led to future bidding cities being ordered to provide more accurate budgets of costs.

Chicago beat Los Angeles today in a US Olympic Committee vote to pick a candidate for the 2016 Summer Games.

The Mayor of Moscow has offered his congratulations to London for their successful bid to stage the 2012 Olympics and then indicated the Russian capital would bid for the 2016 Games.