THE Walsh siblings aren’t into leaving things to chance. A few weeks back Carly McNaul posted a video from the airport as the Irish team awaited the flight that would bring them home early from a training camp in Assisi.
There, in the background, are two figures in familiar green and white tracksuits, wearing protective face masks as they go about their business. Given the spread of coronavirus across northern Italy, Michaela and Aidan Walsh were wisely adopting a safe not sorry approach.
For the west Belfast brother and sister, however, this cautious approach was nothing new.
“Even travelling away up to any competition, we would do that anyway,” said Aidan who, at 22, is four years Michaela’s junior.
“You wouldn’t want anything happening last minute, you want to keep as healthy as possible. You never know what’s floating about, especially at this time of year.
“I got three good spars out there so I was happy; for me it was no different even though the camp was cut short.”
Their Olympic dreams within touching distance, the stakes have been raised as the Walshs eye another crack at creating history.
The European Olympic qualifiers begin in London’s Copper Box Arena on Saturday, with both requiring minimum top six finishes to secure their spots in Tokyo this summer – provided, of course, the Games go ahead as scheduled.
Among his sparring partners in Assisi was Russian Andrey Zamkovoy, who will be top seed in London after finishing top of the welterweight pile at last September’s World Elite Championships.
In the final he beat England’s Pat McCormack – the 24-year-old from Sunderland who just edged out Walsh on a split decision in the second round. Eighteen months before that fight McCormack had comprehensively beaten Walsh in the Commonwealth Games decider in Australia.
Incremental improvements accelerated by his involvement with the Irish elite team were clear to see six months ago, and Walsh believes the experiences he has had on the road in the past year will continue to serve him well.
“The Russian [Zamkovoy] is quite similar to myself, style-wise and height-wise, long and rangy, so it was very good. That’s the type of sparring you want to be having, you want to be testing yourself against the best so you know where you’re at.
“It’s obviously great from where I was in the Commonwealths to there but that’s all I need – just experience. I hadn’t really had that before. I never had it when I was younger, I didn’t have much international experience; I hadn’t even many Irish titles growing up.
“But the multi-nations tournaments I’ve been at, going to camps like the one before the Worlds… that was the first proper training camp I’d been at in my life. I’d never had that type of sparring with World champions, European champions, Olympians.
“It make a big difference because I know I always have the skill, but when you get to a certain level everybody has skill and ability, everyone trains hard, so there has to be something that gets you that one per cent that gets you across the line.
“That’s just experience. Obviously the top fighters in the world are very smart in what they do, so you have to be as smart as them. It’s not just about how fit you are, how hard you train, but how knowledgeable you are in the ring.
“That’s where I am at the minute, and I’m getting there.”
Those percentage gaps are the ones he now needs to close – instead of coming away feeling he might have done enough to get the nod against McCormack last time out, Walsh is determined to minimise areas of doubt.
As he is all too aware, there will be no room for nearly men at Copper Box once the action gets under way.
“It was a great fight [against McCormack] and it just showed I was at that level. It gives you confidence but, at the end of the day, I don’t want to be having close fights with these people – I want to be going in and beating them.
“You’re not remembered for ‘he came close to winning’. Ten years down the line people look at who won the actual fight, not whether it was close - it’s about who wins it.
“I haven’t even been on the Irish team a year yet and I’ve already been to multi-nations tournaments, a World Championships and now an Olympic qualifier. Sometimes it takes people years before they start to get sent away, so I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, train hard and stay focused.
“I just always want to get better. Okay, you’re doing well against top level opposition, but you can’t be happy with that. I don’t want to be doing well; I want to be winning.”
