Determined Ward has a point to prove in Turkey

European light heavyweight champion Joe Ward and Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes will both be seeded in tomorrow’s draw for the European Olympic qualifying tournament in Trabzon, Turkey, but it’s likely the other five members of the Irish team will go into the open draw.

Ward, after winning the European senior title earlier in the year, should have claimed his place at the world championships in Baku but an untypical below-par performance saw him bow out in the second round.

He bounced back with an emphatic defence of his national senior title against Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Egan and the Moate teenager, who also has world youth and junior titles on his CV, claimed his biggest scalp to date when he defeated the 2009 world champion Egor Mekhontsev (Russia) 20-14 in last month’s Chemistry Cup in Halle.