THE Irish High Performance Unit had to “pay attention” to Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Aidan Walsh when considering which light-middleweight to send to the upcoming Olympic qualifier in Italy, according to head coach Zaur Antia.
Although Wexford’s Dean Walsh has won back-to-back Irish titles, 71kg was the only weight class, male or female, that was assessed subsequent to October’s national elite championships – in which Aidan Walsh did not compete.
Indeed, the west Belfast counter-puncher hasn’t boxed competitively since the Strandja international tournament in early 2022, causing some surprise when he was named as part of the team bound for the first World Olympic qualifier in Busto Arsizio.
Mullaghbawn’s Eugene McKeever was assessed alongside the two Walshs in recent months, and Antia insisted Aidan Walsh had missed the Irish elites due to injury.
“The experience, Olympic medallist, and at the same time he was injured so he could not compete in the Irish championships,” said the Georgian.
“71 kilo was very close fights, three contests with 3-2 finish, and at the same time an Olympic medallist was injured. We should pay attention to him, that is why we only did an assessment at 71 kilo.”
It led to obvious disappointment for Dean Walsh, with the Wexford county board expressing “outrage” at the decision, because Dean Walsh had beaten Aidan Walsh in the 2023 semi-final.
However, with Dean Walsh having failed to secure his Olympic spot at last summer’s European qualifier in Poland, Irish coaches have opted for a different approach.
“Irish champion doesn’t mean you go to the competition,” said Antia.
“We are looking for qualities, international fighters – Aidan was one before, he wasn’t Irish champion [when selected to box at the 2019 World Championships]. Aidan has proved before that this practice works.”
Explaining the selection process, Tricia Heberle – who was appointed as High Performance director of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) last year – said a number of different factors came into play.
“We are required to have an Olympic selection policy, and this particular policy governed the selection of an Olympic training squad of up to 26 athletes, which would go from January through to the Olympic Games.
“And from that training squad would come out boxers who would go to the qualifying events, hopefully qualify and eventually go through. But also within that selection policy we had to be able to identify those number ones for the first qualifier, and potentially any boxer who goes to the second qualifier in Bangkok.
“The policy clearly identifies that it’s not an assessment that gets you picked, it’s an ongoing evaluation over a long period of time where we look at 11 different factors – some of those factors are across a two year period, your world ranking, your national ranking, how you’ve performed in benchmark events.
“Those are the Olympics, Worlds, Europeans, European Games – the really big stuff, not the little B grade tournaments where sometimes it’s easier to win. We need boxers who can win at international level, who can perform when the pressure is on, and who can perform in the big events.
“So there were a lot of factors. It was, at a minimum, a six month review of every athlete before they were selected in the Olympic squad, and it’s the head coach only who gets to decide that they want an assessment.
“If we go back to last year’s elites, a lot of the boxers going to the first qualifier didn’t just perform in different events, including the European Games, they went into the elites and were unanimous winners.
Grainne Walsh was absolutely fantastic, so why would you be assessing that category? It’s not a matter of just the coaches or Zauri deciding, we’re governed by policy. That’s good governance.
“Our partners require that, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, Sport Ireland and the IABA require us to have that. I think it’s the bit that sometimes people conveniently forget, they gravitate to one particular aspect of performance and think that’s a defining moment.
“But it’s a lot broader than that.”
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STRONG IRISH TEAM TO SET OFF FOR STRANDJA
A STRONG Irish team will fly out to Sofia later this week to compete at the prestigious Strandja international tournament (February 2-12)
The team includes the five boxers who have already qualified for Paris 2024 – Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harringon, Belfast’s Michaela Walsh, Aoife O’Rourke, Jack Marley and Dean Clancy.
Also in action will be 2022 World champions Amy Broadhurst and Lisa O’Rourke, Shannon Sweeney, Niamh Fay, Ricky Nesbitt, Adam Hession, Eugene McKeever, Dean Walsh and super-heavy Martin McDonagh.
Dylan Eagleson will not travel, however, after undergoing a hand operation.
Elsewhere, a five-strong Ulster High Performance team jetted off to Spain on Monday morning to compete in a Box-Am tournament in Alicante.
On the Ulster HP team are Caitlin Fryers, Nicole Clyde, Clepson dos Santos, JP Hale and Matthew McCole, along with coaches Liam Cunningham, Matthew Toner and Gareth McAuley. R&J is Gary McGillion.
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BOSCO CELEBRATE ANTRIM 12S SUCCESS
ST John Bosco were toasting a magnificent seven after the Antrim 12s championships.
The west Belfast club came up trumps in seven weight categories in a productive week at the Shankill Leisure Centre.
Cormac Smyth started the ball rolling on Wednesday night with a solid performance, with Jerry ‘Duran’ McCann producing a classy performance to claim his third title in recent times after also winning Antrim 3s and 6s and 12s.
Next up was Larne man Harry Hassin with a super performance in Thursdays final against Danil Grigorjev (Lisburn).
“Harry is a super hard puncher for only a lad of 40 kilos,” said Bosco coach Gerard McCafferty.
Clsoing the show on Thursday night was Sandy Row big banger Kai Douglas.
From his seven fights with the Bosco, he has come away with seven stoppages and proved too strong for Midland’s Jay Craney.
Harly Clarke, Ruari Walker and Brooklyn McDonagh all won by walkover, and McCafferty was a happy man after the disappointment of Padraig Downey’s Ulster elite final defeat to Louis Rooney the previous week.
“I’m a very proud man tonight,” he said, “we have kids and coaches from every part of the country all coming together under the St John Bosco roof, and the whole club is buzzing.
“What a way to bounce back after Padraig lost. All the kids boxed superb and totally deserved their gold medals.”
