Three Irish boxers are 9 minutes of boxing, apiece, away from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

66kg Grainne Walsh is the first of Ireland’s boxers between the ropes today; she contests Poland’s Aneta Rygielska. The pair have met three times previously, all of which were in 2023 – at Strandja, Feliks Stamm and Leszek Drogosz. Grainne was the victor on two of those occasions. They will meet for a 4th time in Bout 10 of Ring B’s Afternoon Session, at 3pm Irish Time.

80kg Kelyn Cassidy is up next; he meets 2023 IBA World Champion, Kazakhstan’s Nurbek Oralbay. Both Kelyn and his opponent suffered defeat at the hands of Oleksandr Khyzhniak in 2023 – the Waterford man during the Paris Qualification Bout at the European Games, and Oralbay at last year’s edition of Bocskai Istvan Memorial Tournament. They go toe-to-toe in Bout 11 of Ring A’s Evening Session, at around 8.15pm, Irish Time.

The final Irish boxer to bid for Paris at the 1st Olympic World Qualifier will be Tyrone’s Jude Gallagher, competing at 57kg. He will contest against Turkmenistan’s Shukur Ovezov in Bout 6 of Ring B’s Evening Session, at 7.15pm, Irish time.

602 boxers from 113 countries have registered to contest the tournament – making it the third largest boxing tournament in history.

49 quota places are available. In all weights Ireland is contesting at the tournament, a last four finish will qualify for Paris. The Paris Boxing Taskforce, which is running the competition on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, has advised that boxers will box to quota – which means boxers will cease competing at the Quarter Finals stage where last 4 qualify.

Programme, March 11th

Session Times

The afternoon session begins at 1pm, Irish time

The evening session begins at 6pm Irish time.

Tournament Schedule

Watch live

Olympics.com is now broadcasting all rings and sessions on its website, here.

Team

1^st Olympic World Qualifier Team:

50kg Daina Moorehouse, Enniskerry BC, Wicklow

54kg Jennifer Lehane, DCU Boxing Club, Dublin

66kg Grainne Walsh, St. Mary’s BC, Tallaght, Dublin

51kg Sean Mari, Monkstown BC, Dublin

57kg Jude Gallagher, Two Castles ABC, Tyrone

71kg Aidan Walsh, Holy Family GG BC, Belfast

80kg Kelyn Cassidy, Saviours Crystal, Waterford

92+kg Martin McDonagh, Crumlin BC, Dublin

IABA is proud to support clean sport with the release of the iBoxClean programme – this is designed to raise awareness of anti-doping in our sport, and provide learning and education opportunities for boxers, coaches, club support staff and parent/guardians.

Doping is contrary to the spirit of our sport. Every boxer, coach, club administrator, bout official, elected official, clubs and unit has a responsibility to ensure Boxing is free of doping.  Members are bound by this policy, and by the provisions of Rule 7.5 of IABA’s Rulebook

There are 11 anti-doping rule violations, of which almost half also apply to coaches, so it is vital that coaches go on the anti-doping learning journey with their boxers. More information on Anti-Doping regulations is available through Sport Ireland, here, and through WADA, here

IABA Anti-Doping Tutor, Bee O’Callaghan, shares an over-view of anti-doping

iBoxClean learning

Boxers, parents/guardians, coaches and club support staff can register for any one of the 13 iBoxClean anti doping workshops running in 2024 here

Month	Workshop 1	Location	Time	Workshop 2	Location	Target Group	Time
March	25th	Zoom	1pm	6th	Zoom	Coaches	7.30pm
April	29th	Zoom	1pm	17th	Zoom	Parents	7.30pm
May	27th	Zoom	1pm	8th	Zoom	Boxers	7.30pm
June	24th	Zoom	1pm	12th	Zoom	Coaches	7.30pm
July	29th	Zoom	1pm	10th	Zoom	Parents	7.30pm
August	25th	Zoom	1pm
September	30th	Zoom	1pm
October	28th	Zoom	1pm
November	25th	Zoom	1pm
December

Whilst some of the workshops have a particular focus on either boxers, parents or coaches, any member of any IABA affiliated club can attend any of the workshops.      

iBoxClean Ambassador, Jack Marley, shares his experience of in-competition Anti-Doping testing

Independent Anti-Doping learning

IABA recognises that the iBoxClean calendar may not align with everyone’s schedules, and is sharing this suite of independent learning resources, provided by Sport Ireland and WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency:

• Sport Ireland’s anti-doping eLearning tool
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for international athletes
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for national athletes
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for talented/pre HP athletes
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for coaches
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for support staff
• WADA’s anti-doping eLearning for parents.

The 2024 Prohibited List

The Prohibited List is a mandatory International Standard as part of the World Anti-Doping Program. The List is updated annually following an extensive consultation process facilitated by WADA. The effective date of the List is 01 January 2024, also available here

iBoxClean Ambassador, Kellie Harrington, on how she ensures her supplements comply with Anti Doping rules:

Supplements and Medication Checking

The Sport Ireland Medcheck and GlobalDro are the only ways for boxers to check that their medications meet Anti-Doping Standards

Therapeutic Use Exemptions

Find out more on TUEs, and apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption for certain medications here

Additional Anti-Doping Resources

Sport Ireland’s full suite of anti-doping learning, and information, is available here

WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s full suite of anti-doping learning and information is available here

IABA is now publishing the calendar of Safeguarding One workshops for 2024. 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 courses will take 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.

Book your place here

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.

Refresher

For all club members who have completed Safeguarding 1 training, but who wish to refresh their knowledge, the online Sport Ireland Safeguarding 1 refresher course is available here

Additional Information: For any additional information, please contact IABA’s National Safeguarding Manager, Stephen Flynn, at stephen@iaba.ie

Images: Tara Robins Mari

Kelyn Cassidy and Jude Gallagher are 9 minutes, apiece, away from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – but there was heartbreak in Busto Arsizio for Daina Moorehouse.

80kg Kelyn Cassidy, whose Round of 32 bout with Guatamala’s Wyatt Trujillo lasted less than 90 seconds before a KO, met Armenia’s Rafayel Hovhannisayn. Kelyn was the more stylish, aggressive boxer from the off, but the Armenian showed mettle throughout. The final score, though, of 5-0 to the Waterford man, was indicative of the gulf between them. The final scorecards read: 30:27; 29:28; 29:28; 30:27; 30:27. High Performance Director, Tricia Heberle, described Kelyn as a “legend”, and his “immense performance” showed “such courage.

57kg Jude Gallagher contested for a last 8 place against Soulaimane Samghouli of Morocco. This was a testy bout, throughout, although the Tyrone man maintained the upper-hand in all rounds. It finished 4-1 in his favour and the finals scores were 27:30; 30:27; 27:30; 28:29; 28:29.

A devastating day for 50kg Daina Moorehouse, who took on Uzbekistan’s Sabina Bobokulova. The boxers were tied at 19:19, apiece, on four of five scorecards going in to the last round, and the bout was adjudged a 3-2 split, in favour of the Uzbek boxer. Judges scored the bout 29:28; 28:29; 28:29; 28:29; 29:28. HPD, Tricia Heberle, says “That was a tough call against IABA’s Daina Moorehouse and very few people in the Arena that didn’t think the pocket rocket from Ireland had done enough. Came to fight and did exactly that, well done Daina.”

Images: Tara Robins Mari

602 boxers from 113 countries have registered to contest the tournament – making it the third largest boxing tournament in history.

49 quota places are available. In all weights Ireland is contesting at the tournament, a last four finish will qualify for Paris. The Paris Boxing Taskforce, which is running the competition on behalf of the International Olympic Committee, has advised that boxers will box to quota – which means boxers will cease competing at the Quarter Finals stage where last 4 qualify.

Day Nine- March 11th

Kelyn and Jude will be joined in the Quarter Finals/Paris Qualification Bouts by 66kg Grainne Walsh, following her victory on Saturday over Kenya’s Anyango Friza Asiko.

The Tullamore woman is the first of Ireland’s boxers between the ropes on Monday; she contests Poland’s Aneta Rygielska. The pair have met three times previously, all of which were in 2023 – at Strandja, Feliks Stamm and Leszek Drogosz. Grainne was the victor on two of those occasions. They will meet for a 4th time in Bout 10 of Ring B’s Afternoon Session, at 3pm Irish Time.

Kelyn is up next; he meets 2023 IBA World Champion, Kazakhstan’s Nurbek Oralbay. Both Kelyn and his opponent suffered defeat at the hands of Oleksandr Khyzhniak in 2023 – the Waterford man during the Paris Qualification Bout at the European Games, and Oralbay at last year’s edition of Bocskai Istvan Memorial Tournament. They go toe-to-toe in Bout 11 of Ring A’s Evening Session, at around 8.15pm, Irish Time.

The final Irish boxer to bid for Paris at the 1st Olympic World Qualifier will be Tyrone’s Jude Gallagher. He will contest against Turkmenistan’s Shukur Ovezov in Bout 6 of Ring B’s Evening Session, at 7.15pm, Irish time.

Programme, March 11th

Session Times

The afternoon session begins at 1pm, Irish time

The evening session may begin at 6pm Irish time, see below.

Tournament Schedule

Watch live

Olympics.com is now broadcasting all rings and sessions on its website, here.

Team

1^st Olympic World Qualifier Team:

50kg Daina Moorehouse, Enniskerry BC, Wicklow

54kg Jennifer Lehane, DCU Boxing Club, Dublin

66kg Grainne Walsh, St. Mary’s BC, Tallaght, Dublin

51kg Sean Mari, Monkstown BC, Dublin

57kg Jude Gallagher, Two Castles ABC, Tyrone

71kg Aidan Walsh, Holy Family GG BC, Belfast

80kg Kelyn Cassidy, Saviours Crystal, Waterford

92+kg Martin McDonagh, Crumlin BC, Dublin

Results

All drawsheets are available here

Session 20A results

Session 20B results

Session 21A results

Session 21B results

As part of Women in Sport Week, IABA’s Women in Sport Lead, Sophie Doolan, is opening applications to the association’s first ever Youth Leadership programme, available in this first phase to girls and young women aged 16+:

The programme aims to enable young people to become leaders in their own communities and clubs; to empower young people to make a positive difference in their own lives through the practice of effective leadership and coaching skills and to introduce the importance of good role models the impact coaches have on young people.

Outcomes

The programme comprises 6 modules which are designed to motivate and equip young people to:

• Identify their personal strengths.
• Explain what makes a good sport coach.
• Demonstrate and explain the technical fundamentals of the sport of boxing.
• Design and deliver a boxing programme for personal and group use.
• Understand the role positive mental health play in sports.
• Learn how to support and build an inclusive learning environment and keep other young people safe in a sports club environment.
• Gain Sports Ireland accredited ‘Safeguarding 1’ Certification
• Identify roles within a competitive boxing environment.
• Identify goals and visions for the future and make action plans to achieve these.

Course Outline

Module 1-3: Coaching fundamentals: (2hrs theory/ 1 hr practical)

Module 4: Safeguarding (online) (1-1.15 hr)

Module 5: The competition environment (1hr)

Module 6: Benefits of Boxings as a participant and Youth Leader (1hr)

To express your interest, please complete this form.

For more information, contact IABA WIS Lead, Sophie Doolan; sophie@iaba.ie