WORLD AND EUROPEAN RANKINGS

The new AIBA World rankings can also be configured to include European rankings.

Kurt Walker, for instance, is ranked No. 2 in the World, but is No. 1 in Europe while Bray’s Regan Buckley is No. 4 in Europe.

Kellie Harrington, the 2018 World Elite champion, is No. 3 in the World and No. 2 in Europe while Michael Nevin is No. 4, also in Europe.

Overall, ten Irish boxers are included in the newly updated World rankings.

Michaela Walsh is ranked 11th in the World and current European Elite champion Aoife O’Rourke is No. 10.

Walker, Harrington, Buckley, Nevin, Walsh, O’Rourke, Desmond, Grainne Walsh, Amy Broadhurst and James McGivern are included in the world rankings.

The seeding arrangements at the final World qualifier for Tokyo 2021 will be influenced by the rankings.

The medals won at the qualifiers will also be a factor in Tokyo seedings. Brendan Irvine, for instance, is scheduled to meet Spain’s Gabriel Escobar in the quarter-finals of the European qualifiers.

Both men booked tickets for Tokyo by virtue of reaching the last eight at the European qualifiers in London on March 16 last.

The tournament was postponed that night because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Irvine and Escobar will go head-to-head for at least bronze when the qualifiers resume next February and March at a venue to be confirmed.

Sixteen flyweights, including Irvine, and featherweights qualified for the 32nd Olympiad in London but the other six Olympic weights for men and five limits for women have yet to be decided.

As things stand, the African and Asia/Oceania qualifiers are completed but the Americas have yet to be decided along with 11 of the weights in Europe.

The final World qualifier is scheduled for next May and June.

Click here for AIBA rankings.