Kellie Harrington is eager to get back sparring and trying out some of the techniques she’s been working during the Covid-19 restrictions on sport.

The 2018 World Elite lightweight champion would like to be one of the athletes qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.

Harrington was part of the thirteen-strong Irish squad for the European qualifiers at the Copperbox Arena in London in March.

But the tournament was cancelled after three days on St Patrick’s Eve because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Harrington, who required a top-six finish to qualify in London, was due to meet Poland’s Aneta Rygielska, an opponent she beat earlier this year, on St Patrick’s Day two wins away from booking an Olympic ticket.

It’s expected that the European qualifiers will resume early next year. As it stands, 16 flyweights and featherweight, including Irish captain Brendan Irvine, qualified for Tokyo in London.

Harrington wants to join the Ireland skipper on the plane to the 32nd Olympiad, but for now, the 2016 World Elite light-welter silver medallist is training and staying positive during the Covid-19 restrictions.

“I’m taking full advantage of it. You have to take the positives out of a negative situation and just get on with it and keep moving forward, said the St Mary’s BC woman and only Irish boxer to win two World Elite limits at different limits.

“I’m training most days. I have the (punch) bag out the back and my partner does pads with me. I have a little small gym. Me shed is turned into a gym. I’m still doing what I need to do.

“I really didn’t know what way feel in those qualifiers (London) because we were half thinking “is it going to get cancelled today, is it going to get cancelled tomorrow?” We really didn’t know what was happening.

“So it’s hard to do your usual routine when you have that much going on around you. It felt weird and I was disappointed that I didn’t get to box because that was the qualifiers obviously.

“Now that’s still over my head. There’s a lot of athletes qualified already and I would like to be one of them. Like me, there’s plenty of other people out there who haven’t qualified so I just have to get on with it and move forward.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back sparring because I want to try what I’ve done for the last ten weeks, what I’ve been working on. I want to see if it actually comes into play when I spar.

“I’m more interested about sparring. Interested in how it is going to pan out.”

European champion Aoife O’Rourke, Dean Gardiner, Kiril Afanasev, Michaela Walsh and her brother Aidan, Michael Nevin, Emmet Brennan and George Bates were also scheduled to fight at the European qualifiers for Tokyo on March 17 and 18 in London.

Belfast flyweight Brendan Irvine was slated to meet Spain’s Gabriel Escobar in London. Both men, who have already qualified, will go head-to-head for at least bronze.

The new dates for the European and World qualifiers have yet to be confirmed, and the date for the Americas qualifiers.

 

 

European Qualifiers for Tokyo 2020

Copperbox Arena London March 13/24

(Tournament was postponed on March 16 because of the coronavirus outbreak)

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)

Results

March 16

Last 32

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

75kg Michael Nevin (Ireland) beat Max der van Pas (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 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

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)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Castlerea, Roscommon) (Top 4)

High-Performance Director: Bernard Dunne

Coaches: Zaur Antia, John Conlan, Dmitry Dimitruk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please see below attachment for international results 2019.

INTERNATIONAL RESULTS 2019

Ireland claimed 40 European medals against the continent’s finest last year.

Two of those medals, courtesy of Aoife O’Rourke and Kurt Walker, were Elite gold.

Amy Broadhurst and Niamh Fay secured Euro U/22 and Youth titles and the Irish European Junior and European Schoolboy/girls once again impressed.

Ireland’s young boxers posted two away wins against England and Ireland and Germany couldn’t be separated in a double header in Germany with both sides recording 20 victories each after both legs finishing all square at 10-10.

Team Ireland also beat Italy over two legs in Edenderry.

 

The IABA extends its deep condolences to the Gillen family following the death of Michael “Chick” Gillen.

The late Mr Gillen, a seven-time Connacht champion, was one of the great stalwarts of Galway and Irish boxing and trained many champions, including Atlanta 1996 Olympian Francis Barrett, out of the Olympic BC in Galway.

John Mongan, Secretary of the Olympic BC and a European R&J who training under the late Mr Gillen, extended his deepest sympathies to Maureen Gillen and extended family.

The Olympic BC said that Galway boxing had lost one of its legends.

“It’s with great sadness we wish to inform the passing of club founder and Honorary President Michael ‘Chick’ Gillen.

“Chick founded the Olympic Boxing Club back in the 60’s with him overseeing National Glory for the Club and most notable a representative at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in Francis Barrett.

“Chick the Barber had always a story or a yarn or two to tell and will be widely missed in Galway City, County and beyond.

May he rest in eternal peace.

Click here for the funeral notice.

 

The dreaded countback, accepted scores, a way of deciding a contest in the event of a draw, call it what you want, but waiting for the final verdict to be announced would make a penalty shoot out feel like a stress-free stroll in the park.

Three Irish boxers – Limerick’s Andy Lee, Kildare’s John Joe Joyce and Belfast’s Paddy Barnes – exited the Olympics on countbacks under the old computer scoring system.

Joyce and Barnes lost on accepted scores to eventual Olympic champions.

Counbacks, adding and subtracting the scores of all the judges, were employed when bouts finished even.

Lee, Ireland’s only boxer at Athens 2004, bowed out at the last 16 stages at the 28th Olympiad to Cameroon’s Hassan N’Jikam after both men were locked at 27-27 with the St Francis BC middleweight piling on the pressure going down the final stretch.

N’Jikam lost in the quarter-finals to Russia’s eventual gold medallist Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov.

N’Jikam, who was once managed by Cork’s Gary Hyde in the pro ranks, and Lee both won WBO titles in the paid code.

Four years later, at Beijing 2008, Joyce, nicknamed Triple J, was 11-10 ahead versus Felix Manuel Diaz inside the last ten seconds of their 64kg dust up.

But the man from the Dominican Republic equalised and got the call at the expense of the St Michael’s Athy BC stand out on a countback en route to the light-welter title.

Elsewhere, Holy Family BC man Barnes and Zou Shiming battered each other into oblivion at London 2012 with Barnes putting in a storming finish in a repeat of the Beijing 2008 light flyweight semi-final which Shiming won.

But the Chinese fighter advanced to the final on accepted scores after a 15-15 tie.

Barnes did, however, have the consolation of taking home bronze from London.

Computer scoring countbacks, no one will miss them. Unless, of course, they got the nod.

And it could be argued that given that countbacks were just a means of deciding drawn bouts that Lee, Joyce and Barnes went unbeaten at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

But it didn’t feel like that for the Irish trio and their clubs and fans when the call went against them.

The computer scoring system – and countbacks – was first introduced at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona where Michael Carruth and Wayne McCullough won gold and silver.

 

Images

Barnes and Shiming never had to go looking for each other.

Irish Beijing 2008 squad

Lee versus N’Jikam at Athens 2004