Team Ireland is on the eve of opening their World Youth Championships campaign – the draw has

57kg Jamie Graham of Clonard BC, Belfast has a bye, and opens his account on the World stage at Last 32 stage, against Mexico’s H. Mendoza Carbajal. Also with a bye is 60kg Martin McDonagh, who boxes out of Avona BC, Dublin, makes his debut at the same stage against China’s Y. Wang.

63.5kg Ryan Jenkins, of Olympic BC Mullingar, benefits from the third bye for Team Ireland, and will be two wins away from a medal when he takes on Israel’s A. Rahal

World Junior champion, 71kg Tadhg O’Donnell, of Four Kings BC, Wicklow, hasn’t been accorded a bye, but starts at Last 32 stage by virtue of a smaller weight category. He will contest his opening bout against Bulgaria’s G Zaprinov

Team Captain, reigning European Youth champion Adam Olaniyan of Jobstown BC, Dublin begins his tournament at Last 16 stage, against Mexico’s E. Ramirez Contreras.

60kg Kayleigh Whelan, Avona BC, Dublin has a bye to Last 16 stage, and begins her tournament against the winner of the meeting between Luxembourg and China.

Also starting at the Last 16 marker is World Junior Champion, 63kg Siofra Lawless of Four Kings BC, Wicklow. She will meet Poland’s K. Krowka.

Reigning European champion, 66kg Kyla Doyle of Whitechurch BC, Dublin, will be the third Team Ireland boxer to contest their opening World bout against Mexican opposition – she’ll meet X. Hernandez Valencia.

The tournament is the pinnacle of competition for boxers of this age group. 660 boxers from 88 national federations will represent their countries at the championship, which is being hosted by the Montenegro Boxing Federation from October 20th to November 6th. November 1st will be a rest day at the tournament, and all finals will be boxed on November 2nd and 3rd. The competition schedule is available here

This is a biannual tournament and was last contested by Ireland in La Nucia, Spain, in November 2022. Ireland returned with 6 medals: Gold for 81kg Cliona D’Arcy and light heavy, Team Co-Captain Dearbhla Tinnelly, Lightweight Lee McEvoy, light middle Laura Moran and Team Co-Captain, welter Jim Donovan all came home with bronze medals.

Draws

Day One

Just one Team Ireland boxer is between the ropes on the opening day – 71kg Tadhg O’Donnell, contest his opening bout against Bulgaria’s G Zaprinov

Afternoon Sessions at this championships begin at 10am, Irish time. Evening Sessions start at 4.30pm.

Afternoon Session Programme

Evening Session Programme

Watch

IBA is live-streaming the tournament on its Youtube channel, and will broadcast separate streams per ring and per session.

Ring A, Afternoon Session

Links for all other rings and sessions on Day One are available here

Team Ireland

60kg Kayleigh Whelan, Avona BC, Dublin

63kg Siofra Lawless, Four Kings BC, Wicklow

66kg Kyla Doyle Byrne, Whitechurch BC Dublin

57kg Jamie Graham, Clonard BC, Belfast

60kg Martin McDonagh, Avona BC, Dublin

63.5kg Ryan Jenkins, Olympic BC Mullingar

71kg Tadhg O’Donnell, Four Kings BC, Wicklow

92+kg Adam Olaniyan, Jobstown BC, Dublin

Team Manager: Anna Moore

Coach Liam Cunningham

Coach Garry Kehoe

Coach Ralph McKay

Boxing has been included on the list of sports for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Glasgow from Thursday 23rd July to Sunday 2nd August 2026.

Glasgow 2026 will feature a compact 10-sport programme with Para sport integrated, across four venues within an eight-mile corridor.

Boxing is Northern Ireland’s most successful sport at the Commonwealths with 61 medals, including 13 golds, 19 silvers and 29 bronze medal bronze, prior to the 2022 games. That tally rose to 18 golds, 20 silver and 30 bronze, respectively during the 2022 Birmingham Games.

Team NI topped the medals table with golds came from European U22 bronze medalist and European silver medalist, Dylan Eagleson, 3 time CWG medalist, Michaela Walsh 57kg Jude Gallagher, 63kg World Champion Amy Broadhurst, contesting at 60kg, Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and now double CWG medalist, Aidan Walsh. The team’s silver came through 50kg Carly McNaul, and bronze through 70kg Eireann Nugent.

Michaela and Aidan Walsh have since become double Olympians, and Jude Gallagher an Olympian.

The Commonwealth Games las took place in Glasgow in 2014 and then, Paddy Barnes and Mick Conlan came home with gold, Michaela Walsh and Joe Fitzpatrick won silver and 5 boxers brought home bronze.

Team Ireland has broken all previous records for medals at European U22 level in its 2024 campaign and will return home with 3 gold, 1 silver and four bronze. Ireland’s previous records were 3 medals apiece in 2022, 2021 and 2019.

At yesterday’s Women’s Finals, 2022 World Champion Lisa O’Rourke won European U22 gold by way of a 5-0 victory over IBA-B’s Darya Letsko. 48kg Carleigh Irving will come home with silver after her contest with Turkey’s Nursselen Yalgattekin. 54kg Robin Kelly was awarded her bronze medal.

Men’s finals took place today, and 48kg Louis Rooney was first up, boxing for a top-of-the-podium place against Azerbaijan’s Tural Sariyev and is a champion following a 4-1 split: 28:29; 28:29;28:29;28:29; 29:28. 54kg Patsy Joyce was in action in the 3rd bout, taking on Scotland’s Aaron Cullen, and comes home with gold by virtue of a 4-1 split decision win: 30:27; 28:29; 30:27;30:27;30:27. Clepson dos Santos, Bobbi Flood and Martin McDonagh received their medals .

U22 Team Head Coach, Eoin Pluck, says “This record-breaking result is testament to the individual and collective commitment to training, and readiness to learn and adapt shown by every member of this team.  It’s a great honour to contest for your country, and I’d like to congratulate each boxer, their clubs, club coaches and their families on remarkable achievements in this tournament.”

National High Performance Head Coach, Zauri Antia, attended the tournament in a Coach Mentor capacity and says “Results here show the great depth of talent among boxers in Ireland. Every member of the team has performed exceptionally well, and each team member contributed to this high number of medals.”

Seven Team Ireland boxers lost to eventual champion, including bronze medalists Robin Kelly, Clepson dos Santos, Bobbi Flood and silver medalist Carleigh Irving – alongside 57kg Niamh Fay, 57kg Gavin Ryan and 75kg Josh Olaniyan.

The team have been in training at the High Performance Unit on the Sport Ireland campus since August. During their preparation bloc and with the support of Sport Ireland and SportNI sport science practitioners, have received workshops on Nutrition, focusing on loading, recovery and weight management. The team has received two Sport Psychology workshops, learning in Physiology, and took part in a sparring camp with Italy hosted by the Ulster High Performance Unit

327 boxers from 36 federations have contested the tournament -Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, IBA Neutral N, IBA Neutral B, Ireland, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales.

Team Ireland

48kg Carleigh Irving, Oakleaf Boxing Club

54kg Robyn Kelly, Ballynacargy Boxing Club

57kg Niamh Fay, Phoenix of Ballyboughal Boxing Club

63kg Linda Desmond, Rylane Boxing Club

66kg Kaci Rock, Enniskerry Boxing Club

70kg Lisa O’Rourke, Castlerea Boxing Club

75kg Bethany Dooecy, Castlebar Boxing Club

48kg Louis Rooney, Star Boxing Club

51kg Clepson dos Santos, Holy Trinity ABC

54kg Patsy Joyce, Olympic BC Mullingar

57kg Gavin Ryan, Ratoath Golden Gloves Boxing Club

63.5kg Roy Colgan, Avona Boxing Club

67kg Luke Hall, Olympic Boxing Club Mullingar

71kg Bobbi Flood, Cabra Boxing Club

75kg Josh Olaniyan, Jobstown Boxing Club

80kg James Whelan, Dublin Docklands Boxing Club

86kg Kian Hedderman, St. Francis Boxing Club

92+kg Martin McDonagh, Galway Boxing Club

Support Staff

Team Manager: Sean Crowley

Head Coach: Eoin Puck

Coach: Lynne McEnery

Coach: Damian Kennedy

Coach: Jay Delaney

Coach Mentor: Zauri Antia

Physiotherapist: Ceire Smith

R&J: Mal Scott.

As pledged at the IABA EGM on 12 October, a third phase of consultation on the IABA Rulebook has now opened.

A two- phase formal consultation on the revision of the rulebook took place in November-December 2023 and June-July 2024. A 10-month information consultation was open between November 2023 and September 2024.

The revised rulebook was adopted by the Board of Directors on September 20th last – but member voting on adoption has been postponed to allow additional consultations with State Services: the Defence Forces, Gardai, the PSNI and Universities.

The consultation is now open to all members, through rules@iaba.ie for a two week period until 5pm on Wednesday, October 30th.

Thereafter, the Rules Committee will review all submissions and issue any amendments to all clubs by Wednesday, November 6th, for their consideration.

IABA Rulebook

2022 World Champion Lisa O’Rourke has won European U22 gold in the completion of the women’s competition in Sofia, Bulgaria today.

Lisa was the dominant boxer from the off, in her final against IBA-B’s Darya Letsko, and claimed every round in style. She climbed atop the podium by way of a 5-0 decision.

The first Team Ireland boxer in action today was 48kg Carleigh Irving, who contested against Turkey’s Nursselen Yalgattekin. This was a hard fought bout by both boxers – Carleigh sustained a nasty cut to the eyebrow in the first round, and battled on despite it. Carleigh comes home with silver following an agonising 3-2 split decision in favour of her opponent. Judges scored the bout 29:28; 28:29; 27:30; 29:28; 27:30.

Also today, 54kg Robin Kelly was awarded her bronze medal.

327 boxers from 36 federations have contested the tournament -Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, IBA Neutral N, IBA Neutral B, Ireland, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales.

Men’s Finals

On Sunday, 48kg Louis Rooney is first up, boxing for a top-of-the-podium place against Azerbaijan’s Tural Sariyev. 54kg Patsy Joyce is in action in the 3rd bout, taking on Scotland’s Aaron Cullen.

Clepson dos Santos, Bobbi Flood and Martin McDonagh will receive their medals tomorrow

Watch

The EUBC is live-streaming the tournament on its YouTube channel. Links, per day and session, will be published closer to the time of boxing.

Boxers no longer in competition have seized every opportunity for continued development at the tournament. Today, 75kg Bethany Doocey sparred Türkiye, bronze medalist 54kg Robin Kelly sparred Hungary, 63kg Linda Desmond sparred Poland and so too did 57kg Niamh Fay, in the form of Poland’s Olympic silver medalist.

Team Ireland

48kg Carleigh Irving, Oakleaf Boxing Club

54kg Robyn Kelly, Ballynacargy Boxing Club

57kg Niamh Fay, Phoenix of Ballyboughal Boxing Club

63kg Linda Desmond, Rylane Boxing Club

66kg Kaci Rock, Enniskerry Boxing Club

70kg Lisa O’Rourke, Castlerea Boxing Club

75kg Bethany Dooecy, Castlebar Boxing Club

48kg Louis Rooney, Star Boxing Club

51kg Clepson dos Santos, Holy Trinity ABC

54kg Patsy Joyce, Olympic BC Mullingar

57kg Gavin Ryan, Ratoath Golden Gloves Boxing Club

63.5kg Roy Colgan, Avona Boxing Club

67kg Luke Hall, Olympic Boxing Club Mullingar

71kg Bobbi Flood, Cabra Boxing Club

75kg Josh Olaniyan, Jobstown Boxing Club

80kg James Whelan, Dublin Docklands Boxing Club

86kg Kian Hedderman, St. Francis Boxing Club

92+kg Martin McDonagh, Galway Boxing Club

Support Staff

Team Manager: Sean Crowley

Head Coach: Eoin Puck

Coach: Lynne McEnery

Coach: Damian Kennedy

Coach: Jay Delaney

Coach Mentor: Zauri Antia

Physiotherapist: Ceire Smith

R&J: Mal Scott.