London 2012 Olympian Darren O’Neill has dismissed all talk of “high fives” ahead of his middleweight final with Portlaoise BC prospect Michael O’Reilly at the Elite National Championships.

Billy Walsh insists that boxing’s high-performance unit has the strength in depth to survive the loss of John Joe Nevin to the professional ranks — and Michael Conlan too, if it comes to that.

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.

Once again the Irish contingent will leave an Olympics where the boxing team has been amazing.

Darren O’Neill became the first Irish boxer to exit the Olympicsyesterday but he did so with his head held high after a 19-12 loss to the young German middleweight Stefan Hartel.

Adam Nolan has savoured it already, but this will be young Michael Conlan’s first taste of the unique Olympic atmosphere when he joins the Wexford man on tonight’s bill at the ExCel, with the Irish camp bidding to get back on the winning trail after yesterday’s first boxing loss.

Darren O’Neill has bittersweet memories of the medal ceremony at the Beijing Olympics when Kenneth Egan received his silver medal.

Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey insists he has no issues with show jumper Cian O’Connor competing in the London Games.

Ireland boxing captain Darren O’Neill says the memory of tragic former middleweight rival Darren Sutherland will inspire the six-strong team to emulate Sutherland’s Olympic heroics at the London Games.

Team Ireland's boxing captain Darren O’Neill says the memory of tragic former middleweight rival Darren Sutherland will inspire the six-strong team to emulate Sutherland’s Olympic heroics at the London Games.

By Daragh O Conchuir

Michael Carruth has raised the stakes for Ireland’s Olympic boxers by stating that anything less than a gold medal this summer will rank as ‘a failure’.

A coroner has returned an open verdict into the inquest into the death of Irish boxer Darren Sutherland today, confirmed the cause of death as hanging.

A boxing promoter said he had no idea why Irish boxer Darren Sutherland would have been frightened of him, an inquest has heard.

Boxing manager Frank Maloney is due to give evidence today at the inquest into the death of Irish boxer Darren Sutherland.

Boxing promoter Frank Maloney, who has been criticised during an inquest into the death of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland, has described the proceedings as a “witch hunt”.

An Olympic bronze medallist boxer talked about suicide and said he was “scared” of his manager Frank Maloney, his inquest has heard.

EARLY this morning, many of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls gathered at the Tollymore National Outdoor Centre on the edge of the Mourne Mountains.

IRISH Olympic boxing coach Billy Walsh last night revealed his sport has plans to help fighters deal with the hype that surrounds the Olympic Games.

BERNARD DUNNE yesterday described the Irish team’s performance at the recent World Championships in Baku as a disappointment but believes the Irish boxing team should still claim more medals in London than in Beijing.

WELTERWEIGHT Roy Sheahan steps into the ring against Carl Hield (Bahamas) in Baku today admitting he is more “excited about these world championships than I have been about any other tournament in my life”.

No-one has made it to London yet. That’s one of the first things Billy Walsh reminds people when he senses another eulogy about the Irish boxers coming along and how the medal conveyer belt is bound to roll along all the way to London and beyond.

DARREN O’NEILL has dreamed about boxing in the Olympics for a long time and his dream turned to frustration in 2008 when he watched Kenneth Egan being awarded his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

LUIS “El Leon” Garcia could be contemplating Olympic gold medals if he remained in his native Cuba but, instead, he faces the biggest assignment of his short professional career at The Aura in Letterkenny tonight when he takes on Uruguay’s Jorge Rodriguez on the undercard to Paul McCloskey’s European title defence.

A SECOND postmortem was carried out yesterday on Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland after his body was exhumed from a cemetery in Co Meath.

The body of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland has now been re-interred at St Finian's Cemetery in Navan, Co Meath.

It has been confirmed that the body of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland has been exhumed.

The family of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland have applied for a second post-mortem examination, it was confirmed today.

The family of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland have been granted a licence to exhume his body.

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.

A TEXT-BOOK left hook perfectly placed on the point of the chin signalled the end of Bernard Dunne’s six-month reign as WBA world super bantamweight champion and transferred the belt to Thailand thunderball, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, before a stunned sell-out crowd at the O2 in Dublin’s Docklands on Saturday night.

The parents of the late Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland said they still could not fathom their son’s untimely death.

THE father of tragic Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland says he can’t see any reason why his son would take his own life and is waiting for answers from a London coroner’s report.

World champion boxer Bernard Dunne today vowed to dedicate a successful title defence to the late Darren Sutherland.

Olympic medallist Darren Sutherland was today remembered not only as a loved sporting hero but as a kind and generous family man deeply committed to his community.

Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Co Meath to pay their last respects to Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland.

Hundreds of grieving mourners will gather to pay tribute to Olympic medallist Darren Sutherland today as he is laid to rest a week after being found hanged.

GRIEVING mourners gathered in an Irish church last night on the eve of the funeral of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland, found dead in his London flat a week ago.

WORLD lightweight champion Katie Taylor was back on top of the podium after claiming her fourth European title in-a-row following another emphatic win in the Ukraine yesterday.

OLYMPIC bronze medallist Darren Sutherland’s funeral is to take place on Monday in Navan, Co Meath.

THE family of Darren Sutherland have said “a lot of questions need to be answered” concerning why they were not informed of his suicide until four hours after his body was found.

An inquest into the death of Olympic bronze medal-winning boxer Darren Sutherland was opened and adjourned today.

An inquest into the death of Olympic boxer Darren Sutherland is expected to be opened in London before the weekend.

DARREN Sutherland’s manager Frank Maloney has said “nothing will ever compare to the shock” of finding the Irish Olympic boxer dead on Monday afternoon.