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IABA UPDATE (IABA PRESIDENT ADMITS IT WILL BE A CRUCIAL FEW WEEKS)

posted by mightygloves.com on October 12, 2007, in Amateur

Courtesy of Bernard O'Neill

The President of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, Dominic O'Rourke, believes that the National U/21 Championships, which glove off at the National Stadium in Dublin this evening, (October 12th) are going from strength to strength.

Up to eighty boxers have entered this years tournament which will be held over the next two weekends, and O'Rourke is predicting that the competition will be intense.

He said; "We have received a fantastic entry for the Championships and we are all looking forward to what should be an excellent tournament.
The U/21 Championships are traditionally a stepping stone to the Senior Championships and we have a lot of talented young boxers coming through."

Meanwhile, O'Rourke admitted that the next three weeks will be a crucial period for the Association, between Katie Taylor's tilt for an historic third European title on the trot in Denmark, and the Irish teams quest for Olympic qualification at the World Championships in Chicago.

Taylor, the reigning 60Kg World and European Lightweight Champion, flies out to Vejle in Denmark today (October 12th ) along with her coach and dad Peter Taylor and Pat Ryan, and could be in the ring to begin the defence of the European title she has won for the last two years in a row, on Monday.

Meantime, the Irish senior team arrived home from their training camp in Frankfurt Germany today (October 12) for a short break before flying out to Chicago next Tuesday for the World Championships and Olympics qualifiers which begin at the University of Illinois on October 23rd.

Middleweight Darren O'Neill and featherweight Carl Frampton, who were in training camp in Frankfurt, left Germany on Thursday for a Multi Nations
tournament in Cyprus under coach Tony Davitt.

The IABA have selected an eleven man squad, under High Performance Director Gary Keegan and coaches Billy Walsh, Zuar Antia and
Jim Moore, for the 2007 AIBA World Championships which will feature 120 nations making the tournament the biggest in world amateur boxing history.

O'Rourke added: "We are heading into a crucial few weeks for Irish Amateur Boxing Association as Katie Taylor will be challenging for her third European title in a row in Denmark and our senior squad travel to Chicago for the World Championships and Olympic qualifiers.

"Our boxers will be involved in some very competitive tournaments at home and abroad over the next few weeks.But I believe that our performances in international and domestic competition over the last number of years will give our squads a lot of confidence for the challenges ahead."

There will be two final Olympic qualifying tournaments for European boxers in Italy (Pascara) and Greece (Athens) in February and April next year.

The National U/21 Championships Boxing will commence at 7pm this evening. There will be two sessions tomorrow (October 13th) beginning at
2.30pm and 7pm. The 2007 National U/21 Championships will conclude with finals night next Friday evening (October 19th).

For today's National U/21 Championships Draw and Entries log onto www.iaba.ie

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