IABA High Performance Coach, Damian Kennedy, has been honoured at the Sport NI Sportmaker 2023 Awards this evening. Damian has been recognised for his role as Team NI Boxing Head Coach at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as well as his High Performance coaching in 2023 and 2024.
Team NI topped the medal standings at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, taking home 5 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.
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 has risen to 18 golds, 20 silver and 30 bronze, respectively.
Team NI’s golds came from European U22 bronze medallist and European silver medallist, Dylan Eagleson, World no. 5 and now 3 time CWG medallist, Michaela Walsh, 57kg Jude Gallagher, 63kg World Champion Amy Broadhurst, contesting at 60kg, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist and now double CWG medallist, Aidan Walsh. The team’s silver came through 50kg Carly McNaul, and bronze through 70kg Eireann Nugent.
Damian was accompanied at this evening’s ceremony by his wife, Edel; High Performance Director, Tricia Heberle, HP Head Coach, Zauri Antia, Ulster HP Manager, Aimee Sheils and HP Paris Pool Coach, Rory McShane
These arrangements were communicated by National Secretary, Antoinette Faye McClean, to Provincial Units on March 11th.
Venue: National Boxing Stadium, Dublin.
Dates: April 01st – April 07th.
Entries: An entry fee of €20 applies. Boxers will be pre-entered by their Units from the weights they won at in their Unit Championships. Deadline for entries received by Phillip Rooney boxing.referee@hotmail.com and sally@iaba.ie is 12pm on Monday 25th March.
Any boxer beaten in their Unit championships but who was an Irish Champion at Boy/Girl 1 & 2 from 2023, is eligible for participation as the defending champion.
Draws: Tuesday, 26th March, at 2pm. The draw is being conducted on the basis of pre-entry only.
Weigh-in and Medical: Boxers will weigh only on the day they box. Boxing Record books to be presented by the boxer at their initial weigh-in if not previously given to the IABA. Entry fee to be paid at the initial weigh-in.
Weigh-in times: In National Stadium from 8.00am – 9.00am. Boxing: 11am each day.
Duration of rounds: Boys & Girls 3 x 1.5 Minutes
Age Requirements: Boxers born in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
N.B. It is a condition of entry that all boxers and their clubs have signed and submitted the Members Acknowledgement Form and it is the responsibility of the entering unit that this stipulation is complied with.
Anti-Doping may be carried out at any stage of the championships and all boxers must advise the doctor of any medication they are taking or have taken in the preceding 4 weeks. It is imperative that all boxers adhere to the Anti-Doping Rules and Regulations. For any queries regarding this matter, boxers/coaches should contact Mr Larry Morrison, IABA Anti-Doping Officer on 086-0292476.
Attire: Boxers shall have one red and one blue vest but may wear their club colours. Boxers must not wear long sleeved shirts under their vests. Hair must be tied back, and swimming hats or hairnets should be worn under the headgear for boxers with long hair.
Gumshields: Red/Orange/Pink or variations of these colours are not allowed.
Coaches: They must wear track suits and runners at all sessions and endeavour to set a high standard of hygiene in the corners. No shorts, caps or hats are allowed. Only qualified coaches are permitted in corners.
Sportsmanship: All decisions must be accepted in a sporting manner. Any complaints must be addressed to the Chief Official, Mr. Phillip Rooney. Please show respect to all Ringside Officials.
Once the draw has been completed, it’s footage will be up-loaded to IABA’s YouTube channel.
There are a few places still available for the Safeguarding 1 workshop on Friday, March 29th – places can be booked by club members here. All adults – coaches, committee members and non-coaching volunteers – in every club who have contact with children are required to have undertaken Safeguarding 1.
Two Safeguarding 1 courses are taking place every month, March to November. Acknowledging that club members have a variety of schedules and that no one time will be best for all, a percentage of courses will take place in the evenings, a percentage during weekday lunchtimes and a percentage on Saturdays. Workshops on Safeguarding 2 and Safeguarding 3 will be made available later in 2024.
In keeping with Sport Ireland best practice in Safeguarding training, workshops will be limited to 16 participants. In keeping with norms across the sporting community, the cost for this workshop is E15. Registration for each course will close 2 days before the date, and those who’ve registered will be sent payment information. The participation reservation will expire if payment is not received by 5pm on the scheduled day of the workshop.
Entries are open for the 2024 Monkstown Box Cup, a nationally calendared open class tournament for boxers from BG1 to BG4.
The competition will also offer skills bouts for boxers born 2013 and 2014.
Monkstown Box Cup, organised by Monkstown Boxing Club Dublin, is in it’s 10th year. Previous iterations of the competition have attracted in excess of 500 athletes from federations throughout Europe. This year’s tournament takes place from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd June. Skills bouts will be boxed Friday 21st June from 5pm and Saturday June 22nd from 10am.
This year’s tournament, owing to year-on-year growth, has moved to a prestigious new venue, the UCD Sports Centre on the University College Dublin campus in Belfield, Dublin – D04 K3C6. Three rings will be in operation.
Ireland’s 15 strong 2024 European Youth Championship team have departed for a four day training camp.
The team will train with the France squad to contest the championship in Nancy, until March 28th.
The 2024 European Youth Championships, taking place in Porec, Croatia, from April 2nd to 15th.
Ireland has a highly successful recent history at the tournament – the 2022 team won more medals at this competition that any other Team Ireland Youth squad contesting a European level tournament. They came home with 3 gold for eam Co-Captain, 71kg Bobbi Flood, 81kg Dearbhla Tinnelly and 81+kg Cliona D’arcy., a silver for 70kg Laura Moran and 3 bronze for 48kg boxers Georgia Dunn McGovern and Patsy Joyce, 50kg Katie O’Keeffe, and 63kg Winnie McDonagh
The draw takes place on April 3rd, and boxing begins on the 4th.
The EUBC is expected to live-stream the tournament on its YouTube channel.
