Irish trio within touching distance of Beijing tickets
A place in the final will get all three through but there will be a second shot at qualification for bantamweight, John Joe Nevin, if he fails in his bid to make the finals with a third place up for grabs between the two bronze medallists in a box-off tomorrow afternoon.
For Egan and Joyce, who are both assured of bronze medals, it must be either gold or silver from this particular tournament and neither are without a chance with Egan favourite to progress against Ramazan Magmedau from Belarus.
Both made it to the last 16 in last year’s world championships in Chicago but Egan, who was a bronze medallist at the last European championships and a gold medallist at last year’s EU championships boxed in Dublin, is up in the top three in the European rankings and would be expected to underscore his ranking here.
His opponent is a stocky East European who likes to come forward. “Magmedau is a typical East European boxer who likes to mix it,” High Performance Director, Gary Keegan, said. “I think his style will suit Kenneth who is in super shape right now.”
John Joe Joyce from the St Michael’s club in Athy may have lost out on qualification at the world championships in Chicago due to inexperience but this week he has boxed like a veteran. “Everything he did was done with a purpose,” Keegan said. “He has remained remarkably cool throughout both of his contests and I think this has been vital in seeing him through to the semi-final stages of the competition.” His opponent, however, is ranked in the top three in Europe.
John Joe Nevin has been the sensation of this tournament from an Irish point of view.
Winning every title available to him last year at junior, U21 and intermediate levels he caused one of the sensations of the senior championships this year when he out-pointed the bantamweight champion, Ryan Lindberg, in the semi-finals and then went on to claim the senior title.
Not alone has he carried that form with him to the Adriatic coast but he has continued to build on it with an impressive first round victory before claiming a big scalp — a European silver medallist from Plovda two years ago — in Wednesday’s quarter finals.
“We have always looked at John Joe Nevin as a 2012 boy,” Keegan said. “But when we saw him outclass France’s leading medal hope for Beijing at our training camp in the National Stadium we had to reassess that.
“I will not be surprised if he leaves here with Olympic qualification secure and then, when he goes to Beijing, who knows what might happen.”
Said Dominic O’Rourke, President of the IABA of today’s action: “This is all about Olympic qualification and, up to now, Ken Egan, John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce have performed magnificently to reach the semi finals. I firmly believe that if they box to their full potential — and we have seen what they can do — we will have cause for celebration.’’
The semi-finals get under way today at 1pm (Irish time) with Nevin due into the ring at about 2.30.
Joe Nevin v Maksym Tretyak (Ukraine)
John Joe Joyce v Ionut Gheorghe (Romania)
Ken Egan v Ramazan Magamedau (Belarus)
(Boxers winning their semi final bouts will qualify automatically for the 2008 Olympics).
