Irish eyes turn towards Kazakhstan

Team Ireland arrived home from European Olympic qualifiers in Samsun, Turkey via Dublin Airport yesterday with just a month to go before the World Women’s Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Kazakhstan.

The Central Asia tournament, which begins in Astana on May 19, is the end of line for women and is the last opportunity for Katie Taylor, Ceire Smith and Christina Desmond to book tickets for Rio 2016.

Brendan Irvine and David Oliver Joyce qualified for Rio in Samsun last weekend, but Taylor finished one place outside the top two standard. She beat Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva in the box-off for third. Irvine, Joyce and Taylor claimed bronze, but the men’s medals had Olympic tickets attached. Irvine and Joyce saw off Bulgaria’s Daniel Asenov and Turkey’s Volkan Gokcek in the flyweight and lightweight box-offs to finish in the top three.