Air of confidence in Irish camp

THE fact that Liverpool was not selected as one of the two European qualifying tournaments for next year’s Olympic Games did not come a great disappointment to Irish boxing’s high performance director, Gary Keegan.

AIBA European Continental Bureau has decided that next year’s two European qualifying tournaments for the boxing competition at the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Pescara, Italy, and Athens, Greece.

During its meeting held in Baku, Azerbaijan, where members were attending the 2007 AIBA Cadet World Championships, the European Continental Bureau received four presentations from the Italian, Greek, English (Liverpool) and Spanish (Madrid) Boxing Federations.