Irish reap boxing benefits

Steeped in the past achievements of legends like Barry McGuigan and Wayne McCullough, Ireland’s five-strong boxing squad heads to Beijing in fine shape to add their own chapter to their nation’s illustrious fighting history.

The qualifying of Paddy Barnes, John Joe Nevin, John Joe Joyce, Darren Sutherland and Kenneth Egan represents a huge improvement for the Irish, who took just one boxer to each of the previous two Olympics.

Sutherland, a 26-year-old Dubliner who represents arguably Ireland’s best hope of a medal in the middleweight division, credits the improvement with the new full-time system put in place by the Irish Sports Council.

“We’re part of a full-time, high-performance unit which was put in place a year prior to the Athens Games,” said Sutherland. “Five years on, we’re starting to reap the benefits of that programme now.”

What makes the Irish team’s achievement all the more impressive is the young age of the squad. Bantamweight John Joe Nevin had barely turned 18 when he qualified, while light-flyweight Paddy Barnes is 21.

“It’s amazing because we set ourselves a target of three and we actually could have ended up with even more,” added Sutherland.

“The younger lads were being targeted towards 2012, and they came in under the radar.”

Barnes, from the Holy Family Club in Belfast, was the first Irish boxer to secure his Olympic place when he exceeded expectations by reaching the quarter-finals of the World Championships.

The remaining four places were secured in qualifying tournaments in Pescara and Athens. “We put pressure on ourselves after the Worlds, we went back to the drawing board and it paid off,” said Sutherland.

Sutherland, who enjoyed a brief period in England training at Brendan Ingle’s acclaimed Wincobank academy, won the national title in 2006 and 2007 and has established a huge rivalry with Great Britain’s James DeGale.

Sutherland has won four of the pair’s five fights but all have been close, and the Irishman would not be particularly surprised if that rivalry continues in the rareified air of the Olympic tournament in September.

“We’ve got a great rivalry but there’s no animosity between us and we both respect each other as fighters and boxers,” said Sutherland.

“James is brash and full of confidence and a very tough fighter to take on.”

Ireland have claimed nine Olympic boxing medals in history, their only gold coming in 1992 when the unheralded Michael Carruth won the welterweight division in Barcelona.

McCullough claimed bantamweight silver in the same Games although an Olympic medal eluded McGuigan, who captained the Irish boxing team to the 1980 Games in Moscow but came back empty-handed.

Sutherland is keen to play down comparisons with some of his nation’s most famous fighters and instead insists he and his team-mates will resist targets and simply concentrate on fulfilling their personal ambitions.

“We’re just going to go out and give it our best rather than making predictions,” said Sutherland.

“The draw is at random. You could have the beating of nine out of 10 of your opponents but draw your bogeyman in the first round.

“We’ll go out there to enjoy the experience. For me and Kenneth in particular it’s probably our one and only Olympic Games.

“We don’t want it to pass us by. But we aim to go there strong, and come back successful.”