Egan ready to go at Elite Championships

Ireland's Olympic hero Ken Egan has been using the hills of Donegal as his inspiration ahead of his tilt at creating another piece of Irish boxing history.

The Dublin southpaw, a silver medal winner at the 2008 Olympics, will be aiming for an unprecedented ten titles in a row at the 2010 Elite National Senior Men's and inaugural Women's Championships which glove off at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight.

The 2010 Novice Championships will be run in conjunction with the Elite Senior Championships.

Egan, became the only man in the 99 history of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (founded in 1911) to claim nine Irish senior titles on the trot when he beat Belfast's Tommy McCarthy in the 2009 light heavyweight final.

But McCarthy, a bronze medal winner at the 2008 AIBA World Youth Championships, won an Ulster senior title recently and will pose a threat to Egan's ambitions of matching Jim O'Sullivan's record of ten Irish senior title wins in the 2010 deciders.

Disha Gizim, Jason McCalmon, Denis Hogan, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Richard Beale, Brian Fitzpatrick, Michael Ward and Michael Nevin will also be vying for glory at the spiritual home of Irish pugilism.

O'Sullivan, who missed the 1983 finals because of injury, claimed ten Irish senior belts between 1980 and 1990 boxing out of the St Patrick's club in Enniscorthy.

However, Egan, ranked 4th in the World in the official AIBA rankings,has insisted that he is not even thinking about about extending his dominance of the 81Kg division into double figures.

The Neilstown club-man said: "I haven't even seen whose entered my weight division and in truth I don't want to know. I'll weigh-in on Friday morning and I'll be taking it one fight at a time from there on in.

"I felt that there was a lot of pressure on me last year because I was going for nine in a row which has never been done before, but this year I'm much more relaxed about it and much more focused.

"I'm not even thinking about the ten in a row to tell the truth - it's not even in my head. The way I'm approaching these seniors is to just concentrate on my own performance and not get distracted by talk of creating or breaking records.

"I've been training at the Twintowns club in Donegal for the seniors and I've got in some fantastic sparring with John Sweeney and Stephen O'Reilly. I've done a load of road work in the Donegal hills which is exactly what I needed.

"I would also like to thank the Twinstown club for their hospitality. I'm in super shape going into these Championships and I'm ready to go. My ambition and focus is on bringing another title back to the Neilstown club."

The weigh-in for the Championships will take place between 8.30am and 10am and 12 noon and 1pm Friday at the National Stadium. The weigh-in for the Novices Championships will take place between 10am and 12pm. The draw will be held at 1.30pm.

The Senior Championships begin at 6.30pm tonight.

The Novice Championships glove off at 10.30am on Saturday morning followed by two quarter final sessions at Senior level, beginning at 2pm and 7pm on Saturday afternoon and evening.

The Novice Championships recommence at 11am on Sunday morning

The 2010 Senior and Novice Championships will be held over three weekends.

Dates: February 19/20/21, February 26/27, March 5/6.