Egan and Sheahan target Olympic qualification

KENNETH EGAN and Roy Sheahan take their first steps towards qualification for the 2008 Olympics at the world boxing championships in Chicago today.

Egan, from the Neilstown club in Dublin, is the most experienced member of the Irish team in the Windy City. The winner of seven national senior titles, meets Julius Jackson (Virgin Islands) with the winner of the Mperdesis Anastasios (Greece) and Julio Castillo (Ecuador) bout awaiting the victor on Sunday.

“The last eight is a nice little carrot at the end of the stick,” Egan admitted. “I have done it twice before at these championships and it will be great to do it again with Olympic qualification as the bonus.

“I have looked at the entries and, on paper, there are not too many out there who will beat me.

“I will have to box three times to qualify for the Olympics and after that you are boxing for medals.

“It is about Olympic qualification and I feel, at this stage of my career, I owe myself that.”

Sheahan, one of four boxers from the St Michael’s club in Athy on the team — light welter-weight John Joe Joyce lost his contest in the early hours of yesterday morning — is something of a late developer.

An all rounder, he won five Leinster football medals with Kildare at under-age level, played Kennedy Cup soccer and was involved in a whole variety of sports. A tall welterweight, he can pose problems for opponents but his coach, Dominic O’Rourke, claims that his natural strength is the most important factor in his makeup when combined with his immense talent.

He drew an Athens Olympic bronze medallist, Jung Joo Kim (Korea), for tonight’s opener.

“I have been to the world juniors and at the world seniors last time I got beaten on a countback in the last 16 and the winner went on and won the silver medal. It was just bad luck but, hopefully, I will have better luck this time around.”

Another of his clubmates, Eric Donovan, will be involved in the lightweight preliminaries this evening when he goes in against Varga Makias (Hungary) with a clash with either Jonathan Batista (Dominican Republic) or Maxim Dudku (Israel) awaiting on Sunday. Donovan, 23, was forced to step up a division when another clubmate, David Oliver Joyce, moved up to claim the featherweight title at this year’s senior championships.

“I feel much stronger now at the weight,” he said. “People thought I might be a bit too light but I am stronger and mentally and physically I think I am very well prepared for this.

“We have had some really quality training camps for those championships and all that helps your confidence.

“I was in the world championships in China two years ago and made it to the last 16 where I was beaten by the Romanian who went on to win the bronze medal. I feel I matched him in every aspect, physically, but I lost it up in the head.

“Since 2005 we have had Gerry Hussey, the sports psychologist, on board. Sports psychology is the thing now in all sports, and it is only now that I realise how important it is. I have been working with him for the past two years and I never thought it would have such an impact. But he has been very good.”

Light flyweight Paddy Barnes (Holy Family/Golden Gloves) is reported to be the most improved boxer in Ireland at the moment and he will get his first big test today when he meets Jankuk Chol (Peoples Republic of Korea). If he gets through this his likely opponent on Sunday will be Pal Bedak (Hungary).

Conor Ahern (Baldoyle), who made his world championship debut at light fly, is now up at flyweight and meets Bankeyeu Batomunko (Belarus) today. The Belarussian won a bronze medal at last year’s European championships.