Egan keen to park past problems

KENNY EGAN has put past problems behind him to chase a record 10th successive national senior title at the Elite Boxing Championships which gets under way at the National Stadium tonight.

The Olympic silver medallist stepped off the roller coaster to win his ninth title last year and while former king of the heavyweights, Jim O’Sullivan, also has 10 titles to his credit, Egan will be the first to claim 10 on the trot.

“To be honest, all the pressure was on me last year having come back from the Games in Beijing,” he admitted. “I was ‘The Man’ – the one they all wanted to bring down.

“This time I feel much more relaxed. I don’t feel anything like the same pressure I felt last year and I’m really looking forward to getting in there.

“I genuinely feel in better shape than I did last year. Of course I want to win the 10th title but that’s not what I’m trying to focus on – I don’t even want to think about the 10 in-a-row aspect of it.”

He insisted he has no trouble making the weight and that his bid to turn Beijing silver into London gold in 2012 will be at light heavyweight.

“The trick is to give yourself plenty of time to get the weight off,” he said. “I have come down from around 85 or 86 kg to 81 kg and it has been comfortable enough.”

This morning 10 light heavyweights will go to the scales and the weigh-in will be followed by the draw for the preliminary rounds which will be decided over three sessions – one tonight and three tomorrow.

Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes is assured of a fourth national senior as he was the only light fly entered up to yesterday evening. He also got a walk over last year.

There are four entries at flyweight and bantamweight where world bronze medallist, John Joe Nevin, heads the list, with nine at feather, 11 at lightweight and nine at light welter where Philip Sutcliffe will be defending.

John Joe Joyce who lost out to Sutcliffe last year at light welter is among 14 welterweights entered for this year’s championships after moving up a division to join his St. Michael’s clubmate and former champion, Roy Sheahan, as well as defending champion, Willie McLoughlin (Ilies, Co. Donegal).

Defending champion, Darren O’Neill (Paulstown), heads up an entry of 15 middleweights while there is an entry of 12 for the heavyweight division and they include the defending champion, Con Sheehan (Clonmel).

The super heavyweight division has attracted an entry of nine.

Multiple world and European gold medallist, Katie Taylor, will have just one opponent in her quest for her first Irish title. Tara Keane (St. Annes) is the only other entry at lightweight as the women’s senior championships are held in conjunction with the men’s championships for the first time.