Dean Gardiner
The French men’s team will fly straight to Warsaw after their Round Robin with Ireland, Germany, Italy and Russia at Dublin’s National Stadium this weekend for the Feliks Stamm multi-nations.
“Les Bleus prennent les airs ce lundi, pour un stage en commun avec les irlandais. Les Bleues les rejoindro.”
The Continent is building toward June’s European Elite Men’s Championships in the Ukraine which will act as the only qualifier for the World Men’s Championships in Hamburg, Germany in August/September.
Europe has the highest quota of all the continents for the World Championships with 80 places available through the Ukraine where a top-eight finish in any of the ten weights secures tickets for Hamburg.
Boxing2017 – AIBA World Boxing Championships Qualification System
Germany, under ex-Irish coach Eddie Bolger, doesn’t have to go through the qualification process as they have ten automatic places as the host nation.
260 of the 280 places are up for grabs for Hamburg through the qualification process, with the remaining berths going to wild cards (10) and the host nation (10).
The weekend’s round Robin begins Friday afternoon at the home of Irish boxing. The schedule will be finalised shortly.
Joe Ward will miss the weekend’s activities after picking up a slight hand injury but is confident he’ll be fit for a multi-nations tournament in Romania next month.
“It’s (the injury) very disappointing as I was looking forward to testing myself at the Stadium and boxing at home, said the current European champion and World Elite silver medallist.
“I’m hoping to be back for a multi-nations in Romania on May 9 and build it up from there for the Europeans. I want competitive action going to the Ukraine, I want as many fights as possible.”