Irish Olympic hopefuls set for ‘quality sparring’ in France

IRELAND’S five Olympic boxers have arrived in Bugeat, France, for the penultimate training camp in advance of the Olympic Games.

Some of them would have trained at the French retreat before and Andy Lee trained there in 2004 en route to the Athens Olympics.

This time around Paddy Barnes, John Joe Nevin, John Joe Joyce, Darren Sutherland and Kenneth Egan will train with boxers from France, England, Sweden, Germany and Italy.

“This will be quality sparring,” High Performance director, Gary Keegan, said. “We will be doing our fine-tuning in Vladivostok so, from that point of view, all the really hard sparring will be done here.”

They return to Dublin on Sunday and, after a week at home, travel to Beijing on July 22 to get their Olympic accreditation and familiarise themselves with the Olympic Village and Workers Indoor Arena where the boxing will take place.

They then head to their holding camp in Vladivostok for fine-tuning before returning to Beijing on August 6. The draw takes place before the Opening Ceremony on August 8 and, unless he gets a bye, Sutherland will be in action on Saturday August 9, with the light heavyweights due to launch their campaign the next day.

When they arrive in Beijing they will be familiar with some of the areas because their sports psychologist, Gerry Hussey, has already brought them through the Olympic Village by DVD.

There is some work to be done in the meantime and they were quickly into their stride yesterday.

“Everyone is in really good form,” Gary Keegan said. “The trip to the EU championships in Poland was very worthwhile.

“Going out there we just wanted them to get in some competition and come back in one piece but we came back with a whole bunch of medals and that was a big bonus.

“We wanted to be able to go to Beijing and say we have done everything that is physically possible in our preparation and I know we can say that now.”

Meanwhile Bernard Dunne is still mulling over a shot at reclaiming his European belt ahead of the homecoming hostilities at the National Stadium on Saturday night when he takes on Argentina’s Damian Marchiano in the Hunky Dorys Fight Night.

It will be his first appearance before the home fans since the tough little Spaniard, Kiko Martinez, stripped him of his title in just 90 seconds at The Point last August.

Dunne, who also has his sights on a world title fight down the line, is hopeful that an impressive win over Marchiano will take him a step closer to a fight with the man who now holds his old European Super Bantamweight title belt — England’s Rendall Munroe.

“I want my old title back,” he said. “I hear Munroe’s not all that keen on giving me an opportunity so we might have to just try and force his hand by waiting for the EBU to make me his mandatory challenger.”

But before that he has to deal with the challenge posed by Marchiano and he admits he’s been impressed by what he’s seen of the South American. “I’ve watched a DVD of him and he’s a very aggressive fighter. He likes to press the action and is constantly on the front foot. He likes to drag the other guy

into his kind of fight.”

The 28-year-old Argentinean has a record of 15 wins, four losses and a draw and Dunne says a look at his record reveals his quality. “He’s mixed in very good company and there’s no shame in losing to the guys he has lost to.

“Abner Mares is very highly-rated and one of the big up and coming stars in the US. Last time out he lost to

Silence Mabuza for the IBO title but for me Mabuza is probably the best bantamweight in the world right now and certainly the best puncher in that weight division.”

The Dubliner insists he’s happy to remain at super bantamweight.

“I suppose there will always be options at featherweight but super bantamweight is where I’m most comfortable,” he said. “This fight is a non title fight so it’s been made at a catch weight but super bantam is where I see my future.”