Kellie Harrington with Irish head coach Zaur Antia and Irish coach Eddie Bolger
Kellie Harington is the highest AIBA World ranked Irish boxer, male or female, of 2017 so far.
The World Elite silver medallist from the Glasnevin BC in Dublin is ranked No. 2 in the World at 64kg in the updated rankings.
Cork middleweight Christina Desmond is ranked for the first time after reaching the European Elite semi-finals in Bulgaria last year.
The other ranked Irish female boxers are Moira McEliggot and Grainne Walsh. The women’s rankings were updated this month to reflect performances at the European Championships in Bulgaria last November.
Harrington said she was delighted to move one step closer to the top, but strongly indicated that she is moving down a click from light-welter to lightweight for the Elite Championships which begin in eight days time at the National Stadium.
Boxers changing weights retain 75% of the ranking points earned in the previous weight. Flyweight, Lightweight and Middleweight are the three Olympic weights for women. There are no AIBA ranking tournaments for women in 2017.
Brendan Irvine, Dean Walsh, Sean McComb, Steven Donnelly, Michael O’Reilly and Joe Ward are also ranked by AIBA.
A number of Irish and international boxers will improve one place when athletes who have turned professional are removed from the pecking order.
For instance, to name just six, Katie Taylor, Michael Conlan, Claressa Shields (USA), Mohammed Rabii (Morocco), who is training in Cork ahead of his pro debut, Tony Yoka (France) and Nicola Adams (England) are still included in the rankings but have switched codes and are no longer under the jurisdiction of AIBA.
The Olympics, World Championships, Continental multi-sports tournaments, i.e. European Games, and Continental Championships are the four AIBA rankings tournaments.
AIBA ranking points are accumulated over a two-year rolling period. Click on Irish names for rankings.