Irish Boxing Squad Named For AIBA World Championships

Following a meeting at the National Stadium in Dublin today the Boxing Council of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association named their Elite squad for the upcoming AIBA World Senior Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlon, John Joe Nevin, David Oliver Joyce, Roy Sheehan, Darren O’Neill, Joe Ward, Ken Egan and Con Sheehan have been named in on the Irish team for Baku.

Ray Moylette, the current European Elite champion, and Ross Hickey, the current Irish Elite champion, will meet in a box-off on Friday September 2nd to decide the light-welterweight position.

Paddy Barnes and Joe Ward – who between them have won two gold medals at the 2010 and 2011 European Elite Championships – will wear the Irish light-flyweight and light-heavyweight vests in Baku.

Olympic silver medalist and three-time European Union champion Ken Egan and 2009 European Union gold medalist Con Sheehan have been selected at heavyweight and super-heavyweight.

Bantamweight John Joe Nevin, a bronze medal winner at the 2009 AIBA World Senior Championships, 2009 European European Union champion and 2010 European Elite Championships silver medalist Darren O’Neill, and 2009 European Union champion David Oliver Joyce have also been named in the squad.

Belfast’s Michael Conlon will compete at flyweight in Baku, while 2007 European Union champion Roy Sheehan will carry Ireland’s welterweight hopes at the first major qualifier for the 30th Olympiad.

Five boxers have already qualified for the 2012 Olympics through the World Series of Boxing Individual Championships.

There will be one final Olympic qualifier for European boxers at a venue to be confirmed next April.

The preliminary rounds of 2011 AIBA World Championships and Olympic qualifiers begin in Baku on September 26th.

The Irish Elite squad are currently in training camp in Assisi, Italy.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed following today’s Boxing Council meeting that Michael O’Reilly, of the Portlaoise BC, will line out for Ireland at welterweight at the 2011 European Youth Championships which begin on Monday at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.