Covid-19 Course and Covid-19 Officer Course

It has been decided that the IABA will run Information Seminars in the Provinces to assist members with their Covid-19 obligations regarding re-opening their clubs.

Please click here for course info.

The Sport Ireland accredited Covid-19 Officer online course must be completed by at least one member from every club in order to facilitate their return to boxing. See course attached.

There are two parts. The basic Covid-19 course consists of 9 questions and this is followed by the Covid-19 Officer course which has a further 4 questions. A certificate of completion can be downloaded at the end of each part and kept on file in the club.

The Information Seminars will provide opportunities for members attending to ask questions and get clarifications to any points raised. Members can do the online course prior to attending the Information Seminar or immediately afterwards.

Details of venues, times and dates for the Information Seminars will be made available to members from their Provinces/Units.

Paddy Gallagher

National Secretary IABA

 

Please see below attachment for 2019 domestic and international results

 

RESULTS 2019

Nine Irish boxers will still be in play for Olympic qualification when the European qualifiers for Tokyo 2021 resume early next year.

The Europeans will be decided in February/March 2012 at a venue to be decided, followed by the final World qualifiers next May/June.

The European qualifiers for the 32nd Olympiad were abandoned after three days of competition at the Copperbox Arena in London on March 16 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A few hours before the curtain prematurely came down on the competition, Antrim’s Brendan Irvine booked a ticket for his second successive Olympiad after recording a convincing victory over Hungarian flyweight Istavan Szaka.

Irvine required a top-eight finish, and he beat Szaka on a unanimous decision to make the quarter-finals in the English capital.

Meanwhile, Kellie Harrington and her St Mary’s BC team-mate George Bates, Dean Gardiner, Kiril Afanasev, Michael Nevin, Emmet Brennan, Michaela Walsh and her brother Aidan and Aoife O’Rourke will still be in the mix when the qualifiers resume.

Bates was slated to face Azerbaijan’s ex-World Elite champion Javid Chalabiyev on St Patrick’s Day last looking to finish in the top eight and secure Olympic qualification.

The rest of the routes are not as clear cut for Ireland.

Harrington, Michaela and Aidan Walsh, Brennan and Nevin require top 6 finishes.

Likewise, if they make the semi-finals (top 4) they’re qualified but if they reach the quarter-finals (top 8) and lose they’ll box-off for the remaining two places.

There’s no ambiguity about what Afanasev, O’Rourke and Gardiner must do. They must finish in the top four (reach the semi-finals).

Kurt Walker, Christina Desmond and Carly McNaul lost in London, while Irvine, while already qualified, will meet Spain’s Gabrial Escobar for at least bronze at the European qualifiers.

Sixteen flyweights and featherweights qualified for Tokyo 2021 in London, but it’s still all to play for in the other six weights for men and five limits for women.

Two hundred and eighty-six boxers – 186 males and 100 females – will compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

European Qualifiers for Tokyo 2020

(Tournament postponed on March 17 because of the Covid-19 outbreak)

Copperbox Arena London

March 15

Last 32

63kg George Bates (Ireland) beat Leon Dominguez (Spain) RSCI1

81kg Emmet Brennan (Ireland) beat Radenko Tomic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) RSC2

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Ireland) beat Begadze Nikoloz (Georgia) 4-1

Last 16

69kg Christina Desmond (Ireland) lost to Angela Carina (Italy) 0-5

March 16

Last 32

69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) beat Pavel Kamanin (Spain) 5-0

75kg Michael Nevin (Ireland) beat Pas der Van (Netherlands) 4-1

Last 16

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) beat Istavan Szaka (Hungary) 5-0

51kg Carly McNaul (Ireland) lost Charley Davison (Team Great Britain) 0-5

57kg Kurt Walker (Ireland) lost to Hamsat Shadolov (Germany) 0-5

March 17

Last 16

(Postponed)

57kg Michaela Walsh (Ireland) v Mona Mestian (France)

60kg Kellie Harrington (Ireland) v Aneta Rygielska (Poland)

63kg George Bates (Ireland) v Javid Chalabiyev (Azerbaijan)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Ireland) v Viktoriya Kebikava (Belarus)

75kg Michael Nevin (Ireland) v Arman Darchinyan (Armenia)

81kg Emmet Brennan (Ireland) v Uke Smajli (Switzerland)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Ireland) v Emanual Reyes (Spain)

March 18

Last 16

(Postponed)

69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) v Wahid Hambli (France)

91kg+ Dean Gardiner (Ireland) v Petar Belberov (Bulgaria)

March 19

Q/Final

(Postponed)

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) v Gabriel Escobar (Spain)

Irish squad

(Olympic qualification standard in brackets)

Male

52kg Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s, Antrim) Cpt (Top 8) (qualified)

57kg Kurt Walker (Canal, Antrim) (Top 8)

63kg George Bates (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 8)

69kg Aidan Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

75kg Michael Nevin (Portlaoise, Laois) (Top 6)

81kg Emmet Brennan (Dublin Docklands) (Top 6)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Smithfield, Dublin) (Top 4)

91+kg Dean Gardiner (Clonmel, Tipperary) (Top 4)

Female

51kg Carly McNaul (Ormeau Road, Belfast) (Top 6)

57kg Michaela Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

60kg Kellie Harrington (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 6)

69kg Christina Desmond (Fr Horgan’s, Cork, Garda BC) (Top 5)

Kurt Walker and Kellie Harrington are ranked number 2 and 3 in the recently updated International Boxing Association (AIBA) World rankings.

Walker trails Uzbekistan’s table topper Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov in the 56kg category and lightweight Harrington is behind Brazil’s Beatrice Soares and Finland’s Mira Potkonen.

Amy Broadhurst is ranked number 25, also at lightweight.

Ireland also occupies two places in the women’s welter class with Christina Desmond ranked 9th and Grainne Walsh 16th.

Aoife O’Rourke is at number 10 at middleweight.

Regan Buckley is ranked joint 7th in the light-fly category and Michael Nevin at No.11, while Michaela Walsh is ranked 15th at 57kg.

James McGivern is No. 36.

Please click here and here for rankings.

Overall, Ireland has five boxers in the top ten and two in the top three.

The rankings are based on performances at specified events up to September 2020, according to the AIBA tables.

Rome 1960

Irish boxing travelled to Rome for the 1960 Olympics with a spring in its collective step after finishing in 4th position in the medals table at the 1956 Games.

Five medals had been secured from the last two Olympiads, two silver and three bronze. Confidence was high ahead of the opening bell at the Palazzo dello Sport venue.

But there was no joy for Irish pugilism in the Eternal City as none of the ten-strong squad, Ireland’s biggest ever Olympic boxing panel, medalled.

Bernie Meli, at 20 the youngest member of the team, beat Greek light-welterweight Michail Dememtre in his opening bout, but lost to Bohumil Nemecek of Czechoslovakia, who went on to win gold.

Omagh BC lightweight Danny O’Brien also opened his account with a win, beating Esteban Aguilar from the upcoming boxing nation of Cuba. However, he then went out to the eventual silver medallist, Sandro Lopopolo of Italy, in the next round.

The great Harry Perry, a multiple Irish champion, came unstuck. The Dubliner, appearing in back-to-back Olympics and a bronze medal winner at the 1959 European Championships in Switzerland, dropped a split decision to Korea’s Ki-soo Kim in his opening bout.

Cork’s Paddy Kenny, who sold copies of the Echo on the streets of Leeside, Ando Reddy, Mick Reid and Eamonn McKeon chalked up victories in Rome.

Colin McCoy was beaten in the light-heavyweight class by Finland’s Matti Aho, who was eliminated by Bulgaria’s Petar Stankov in the last-16.

Stankov was subsequently beaten by Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in the last-eight, but the Polish fighter, who saw off the challenge of Italy’s Giulio Saraudi in the semi-finals, had to settle for silver after ending up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision to a charismatic 18-year-old American sensation named Cassius Clay, later to be known as Muhammad Ali.

Clay was one of three American boxers to claim gold medals in Rome, but that wasn’t enough to secure the top spot for the USA in the medals table.

Clay endured a strong challenge from the experienced Pietrzykowski, a three-time Olympic medallist and four-time European Elite champion, in the first round of their 81kg final.

But the Greatest took the second round and dominated the third en route to gold.

According to Thomas Hauser’s critically acclaimed Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Clay’s mother, Odessa Grady-Clay, was the granddaughter of Abe Grady who emigrated to the USA from Clare soon after the American Civil War.”

Clay/Ali was made a freeman of Ennis in 2009.

Hosts Italy, with three gold, three silver and one bronze medal, topped the medals table at the 1960 Games.

The Rome Olympiad was the first Olympics to be televised live.

There was a slight change to the scoring system for boxing at the 1960 Olympiad with five judges scoring bouts instead of three.

(Image Ali on the winners podium at Rome 1960)

Ireland at the 1960 Olympics. 

Flyweight: Adam McLean (Crown)

Lost to Karimu Young (Nigeria) 1-4

Bantamweight: Paddy Kenny (Cork News Boys & Coventry Irish)

Beat Emile Anner (Switzerland) 5-0

Lost to Jerry Armstrong (USA) 2-3

Featherweight: Ando Reddy (Sandymount)

Beat Andre Juncker (France) 3-2

Lost to Abel Bekker (Rhodesia) 0-5

Lightweight: Danny O’Brien (Omagh)

Beat Esteban Aguilar (Cuba) 5-0

Lost to eventual silver medallist Sandro Lopopolo (Italy) 0-5

Light-welterweight: Bernie Meli (Immaculata)

Beat Michail Demetre (Greece) 5-0

Lost to eventual gold medallist Bohumil Nemecek (Czechoslovakia) 0-5

Welterweight: Harry Perry (British Rail)

Lost to Ki-soo Kim (Korea) 2-3

Light-middleweight: Mick Reid (Crumlin)

Beat Helio Crescencio (Brazil) 4-1

Lost to Henryk Dampe (Poland) 0-5

Middleweight: Eamonn McKeon (Crumlin)

Beat Mohammed Ben Gandoubi (Tunisia) 5-0

Lost to Frederik van Rooyen (South Africa) 0-5

Light-heavyweight: Colin McCoy (Kilcullen)

Lost to Matti Aho (Finland) 1-4

Heavyweight: Joe Casey (Arbour Hill)

Lost to Obrad Sretenovic (Yugoslavia) 0-5