Irish hopefuls in great shape for qualifiers

WITH Limerick southpaw Andy Lee safely through to the Olympics, the remainder of Ireland’s Athens boxing hopefuls are currently training in Heidelberg in advance of next week’s qualifying tournaments in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Warsaw.

Olympic qualification in Europe is at least as difficult as winning a medal at the actual Games but when the Irish team break camp next Monday they can do so in the knowledge that no other nation involved will have prepared better.

“This training camp is certainly different from the last one,” High Performance Director, Gary Keegan, said last evening as the 10-man Irish team worked out with two teams from Germany.

“The two German teams have ensured that they are all getting plenty of spars and everybody is in good shape. In fact I would say that they are just coming into form at precisely the right time.”

The three boxers who missed the European championships, featherweight Martin Lindsey (Immaculata), Heavyweight Alan Reynolds (St Joseph’s, Sligo) and Super Heavyweight, Martin Rogan (Immaculata) after failing to show up for a squad session are all back in the fold.

And when they break camp on Monday light-fly Conor Ahern (Baldoyle), bantamweight Eric Donovan (St. Michael’s Athy) who received an Irish Examiner/TV3 Junior Sports Alllstar Award last week, lightweight Andrew Murray (Cavan), welterweight Henry Coyle (Geesala) and Super heavy Martin Rogan will depart for Plovdiv.

Warsaw-bound will be flyweight Paul Hyland (Golden Cobra), featherweight Martin Lindsey (Immaculata), light welterweight Paul McCloskey (St Canices), and heavyweight Alan Reynolds.

Competition will start on Tuesday and it will be as tough as the Europeans if not tougher.

“It certainly does not look like a fair distribution of the qualifying tournaments,” Gary Keegan admitted. “We have three of the four inside what we would refer to as the old Eastern Bloc and the other one, Gothenburg, is way up north.

“Western Europe seems to be a bit neglected when it comes to deciding where the tournaments will be held but I suppose we have to be content with our lot.

“The one fair thing about it is the draw and we are hoping that this will go in our favour. That is all about luck. After that we won’t be expecting any favours as we would not be strong in relation to the politics of European boxing but we will take our chance.

“The one big thing in our favour is the fact that we have prepared well. I would be pretty confident in saying that no other country will be better prepared. And, while Athens is the target, this is as much about Beijing. I mean half of the squad is U-19 and this will provide them with tremendous experience.

“Having said that, they are all very confident and they are determined to go all the way in pursuit of that qualifying place. But it will be difficult. To gain qualification in those tournaments you have to make it to the final as only two boxers will go through in each division and each boxer is going to have a minimum of three fights to make it to a final.”

The other qualifying tournaments will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan and Gothenburg, Sweden from April 19-26.

On the domestic front the National Youths and Boy 4 finals will be held at the National Stadium over the coming weekend.