UK amateurs olympic vs world success

[davie]

Britain have been relatively successful in recent olympics and historically have picked up a fair numbers of medals in the ring at the olympics. Yet we seem to have had very little success at the world amateur boxing championships.

with the worlds happening more often and presumably, the same group of fighters competing on the 2 stages, what is it that makes us so much less competative there?

i really don't follow amateur boxing, other than at the olympics. I've wondered for a while, why the difference in the 2 tournaments. Is the format different? are there groups or nationalities that compete in one and not in the other? do brittish fighter approach one set up differently or take one more seriously than the other?

[tflanagan5]

Well most boxers will tell you that its actually harder to win a world championship than an olympic medal. This is due to there being less boxers competing in the olympics as you need to qualify ,whereas every boxing nation in the world can enter there fighter in the world championships. Also each continent has a quota on the number of boxers that can qualify in each weight meaning that usually some very talented european boxers fail to qualify while lesser boxers from africa and oceania make it to the olympics, this weakens the field. In britains case they also have what i would see as an unfair advantage in olympic qualification events as the are aloud to send 3 boxers in each weight catagory competing as England Scotland and Wales, this give them a better chance of qualifying boxers and when they get to the olympics they all compete for great Britian. The fact that the last olympics was held in London also meant that Britain did a lot better than usual as they benifited from a lot of hometown decisions. IMO Ogogo & Joshua wouldnt have even medaled if the olympics were staged anywhere else,thats just my opinion though.

[davie]

cheers, explains it well

but one question, are you sure about the scotland/england /wales thing?

i believe we compete as seperate nations at the commonwealth games, but in the olympics we are great britain.

i'm a scot, i'm sure we dont have a seperate boxing squad at the olympics.
if we did it would be england, wales, scotland and northern ireland.

but i'm sure we just have a team GB

[tflanagan5]

yes i am at the world championships, european championship and olympic qualifying tournaments they compete seperately meaning Great Britian could potentially have 3 boxers fighting for qualification in each weight catagory.

An example of this is the last olympics where Andrew Selby of Wales and Kal Yafai of england both qualifed for the olympics at the world championships. Since at the olympics they would be competing under Great Britian they had a box off for the place and Andrew Selby won and went to the olympics and Yafai decided to turn pro after that. I think its kind of unfair to be honest.

On the Northern Ireland thing seems every Northern Irish boxer chooses to compete for Ireland instead of Great Britian, the likes of michael Conlan, Paddy Barnes and Thomas McCarthy all from Belfast choose to compete for Ireland so in amatuer boxing terms Northern Ireland seem to join with Ireland. Carl Frampton is another example of a Belfast boxer who competed with Ireland. Im pretty sure boxers from the North have a choice with who they want to compete with but they all seem to choose Ireland, might be due to personal preferance, better funding, travel as Belfast to a lot closer to the elite performance facilites in Dublin then it would be to the elite performace facilities of Great Britian in Sheffield. Im only speculating on the reason here im not sure

[donnellon]

Yep, it's definitely an unfair advantage. If Russia, Ukraine, Ireland, Cuba etc could send three fighters at all weights they would almost certainly get boxers through at all weight catagories.
Also in the Uk boxers turn pro quicker out of Olympic years.

[tflanagan5]

Yep, it's definitely an unfair advantage. If Russia, Ukraine, Ireland, Cuba etc could send three fighters at all weights they would almost certainly get boxers through at all weight catagories.
Also in the Uk boxers turn pro quicker out of Olympic years.

I think its also not fair on the boxer who is good enough to qualify but then loses a box off and dosnt get to go eg Kal Yafai

[davie]

i think i see where the confusion came

britain still only get to take 1 fighter per wieght to the actual olympics,
but can take more guys to the qualifiers (from scotland/england/wales), giving them an advantage to get through to the tournament.

[tflanagan5]

i think i see where the confusion came

britain still only get to take 1 fighter per wieght to the actual olympics,
but can take more guys to the qualifiers (from scotland/england/wales), giving them an advantage to get through to the tournament.

spot on