the amateur scene

steve-collins

with the way the lads are doing in the olympics the amateur scene seems to be going from strenght to strenght . just wondering wat good amateurs are coming through for the future and will they be able to replace the lads that will be going pro . im just looking for a few opinions on lads like darren o niel roy sheehan and david oliver joyce as i have not seen these lads fight and if anyone thinks they can get to the next oplympics .

thirtyfoot

Also, can anyone who knows fill me in on the High Performance Centre and how it works. Involved in athletics myself and I think we could take a leaf out of the boxers book.

Is it based in Limerick?
How many boxers are in it?
Are they there fulltime or for periods on end?
How many coaches are involved?
Doctors, psychologists etc?
How do you get into the High Performance Centre, whats the talent identification like, what age are the guys etc?

Big Ears

steve-collins wrote: »

with the way the lads are doing in the olympics the amateur scene seems to be going from strenght to strenght . just wondering wat good amateurs are coming through for the future and will they be able to replace the lads that will be going pro . im just looking for a few opinions on lads like darren o niel roy sheehan and david oliver joyce as i have not seen these lads fight and if anyone thinks they can get to the next oplympics .

All 3 are quality fighters and all 3 could definitely make the Olympics and do well under the right structure, Con Sheehan of Clonmel is a heavyweight who's only 18/19 is one I'd expect to make the next Olympics.

I think Darren O'Neil would of made this Olympics if not for Darren Sutherland, O'Neil has been very unlucky with having to contend with Kenny Egan and Sutherland over the last few years as Darren is probably a top 15 in the World Middleweight himself.

Sheehan has beaten the European Championship Silver medallist from 2004 Xavier Noel in winning last years EU Championship.

Almost anyone that wins a Irish title has the pedigree to qualify for the Olympics under the right conditions. I'd like to see boxing receive increased funding from the Sports Council and I'd like to see more boxers brought into the high performance programme, because if you're not there then you're not going to make it.

We've had fantastic boxers like Bernard Dunne as an amateur not even make the Olympics and it's partially because of a lack of a high performance programme at the time. Andy Lee had a poor Olympics when the high performance programme hadn't been properly established. Okay he was robbed, but he still fought quite poorly for someone of his talent.


We upped the funding to boxing after the last Olympics and we also put in measures to improve the quality of our boxers. In that time we've gotten a Bronze medallist at the European Championships, 5 boxers qualified for the Olympics, 2 of which are guaranteed a medal and another to fight.

Of our two boxers that have gone out so far, one lost to a Mongolian who is guaranteed a bronze and should make the final to win Silver if not Gold(which they have a great chance of)

The other lost on a countback to a fighter who is guaranteed a medal now himself and has a reasonable chance of making the final.

All 5 of our boxers won at least 1 bout, and no matter what happens with Sutherland tomorrow all of our boxers will either have medalled or lost to a fighter who medalled.

Britain also put great funding into boxing after the last Olympics where they also only had one participant. Okay Khan did win Silver for them but only 1 fighter was a poor showing. 4 years on they've won 2 Bronze medals at the European Championship(one from Scotland, one from England), oddly one of those was from a fighter in Stephen Smith who didn't qualify.

Between England, Scotland and Wales they won 6 Gold, 2 Silver and 5 Bronze medals at the Commonwealth games. They won a Gold and 2 Bronze medals at the World Championship and qualified a massive 8 fighters for Beijing, where they like Ireland are guaranteed at least 2 Bronze medals, with one fighter to go.

You put the right system in place and get good funding and you can turn good fighters into very good fighters. You can turn very good fighters in excellent fighters, and you can turn excellent fighters into incredible fighters.

From what I've seen of the 3 men you mentioned there's absolutely no reason why they can't qualify in 4 years time, and there's no reason why 3/4 others can't go with them.

dbrady01

We also have a good crop of juniors coming tru who are getting good international exposure. The world youth championships ( they are not called juniors any more ) are on in mexico in october and ireland will be sending a team to it and after thet they will start to look at bringing some of them onto the hight performance setup with london 2012 in mind

03mcgs0

Tingle wrote: »

Also, can anyone who knows fill me in on the High Performance Centre and how it works. Involved in athletics myself and I think we could take a leaf out of the boxers book.

Is it based in Limerick?
How many boxers are in it?
Are they there fulltime or for periods on end?
How many coaches are involved?
Doctors, psychologists etc?
How do you get into the High Performance Centre, whats the talent identification like, what age are the guys etc?

Right I dont want to go into too much detail

1) It's based in Dublin - National Stadium
2) The National champions in each weight, plus others such as Darren O'Neill and Eric Donovan and the likes etc. Lads on the boarder of being a champion, they fight in what some may call B international. hard to put a figure as it changes quite a lot.
3)They are there fulltime during the week, and in preperation for tournaments. They would go home for weekends
4) Coaches numbers I'm not sure on, but Mr. Walsh is the main guy
5) Yes every carded athlete has access to doctors and psychologists
6) You gotta be god damn good, in most cases you would be identified as a youngster, but if you start performing well at any age you could be included


On the whole from what I know it's a damn good set up, hope that helps a little, other people who know far more than me (i.e. Big ears)