Watch Irish boxers live in Olympic boxing qualifiers

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11:55am Saturday

Watch the Irish boxers looking to qualify for boxing in the Olympics in Japan, it starts in London today and lasts a week.

The first session starts at 11:55am and click here to watch live.

This is the first of two opportunities for Irish boxers to gain qualification to the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer. There are 77 spots available in this tournament – 50 for men and 27 for women. Boxers who don’t achieve qualification in London will have a second chance to qualify for Tokyo 2020 at the World Tournament in Paris in May 2020.

This is the third event of five in the Boxing Road to Tokyo – the first two Continental qualification events took place in Africa and Asia. In late March, Buenos Aires will host the fourth event for the Americas and the final event in the qualification process will be the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament will take place in Paris, France from the 13-20 May.

The Olympic Games will have eight events for men, and five events for women – with an increased number of women’s boxing medals up for grabs, in line with the IOC’s aim to achieve gender balance in the Olympic Games.

The IOC recently announced that Tokyo 2020 will have achieved gender balance with 48.8% females competing, they also confirmed there will be full gender representation across all National Olympic Committees for the first time ever. The IOC also introduced a new rule that will allow one male and one female flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony.

Full details on Team Ireland will be updated throughout the week on the IABA Website HERE

Live Streaming of the event is on the Olympic Channel HERE

The official event website page is HERE

Boxing at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo 2020 and all the events on the Boxing Road to Tokyo will be run by the IOC Boxing Task Force.

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TEAM IRELAND COMPETITION TIMES

March 15

Last 32

63kg George Bates (Ireland) v Leon Dominguez (Spain)

81kg Emmett Brennan (Ireland) v Radenko Tomic (Bosnia)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Ireland) v Begadze Nikoloz (Georgia)

Last

March 16

Last 32

69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) v Pavel Kamanin (Estonia)

75kg Michael Nevin (Ireland) v Pas der Van (Netherlands)

Last 16

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) v Istavan Szaka (Hungary)

51kg Carly McNaul (Ireland) v Charley Davison (Team Great Britain)

57kg Kurt Walker (Ireland) v Hamsat Shadolov (Germany) or Anton Charnamaz (Belarus)

March 17

Last 16

57kg Michaela Walsh (Ireland) v Melissa Morensen (Denmark) or Mona Mestian France)

60kg Kellie Harrington (Ireland) v Aneta Rygielska (Poland) or Paula Cosmo (Romania)

69kg Christina Desmond (Ireland) v Angela Carina (Italy)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Ireland) v Viktoriya Kebikava (Belarus)

March 18

Last 16

91kg+ Dean Gardiner (Ireland) v Petar Belberov (Bulgaria)

TEAM IRELAND BOXERS

(Olympic qualification standard in brackets)

Male

52kg Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s, Antrim) Cpt (Top 8)

57kg Kurt Walker (Canal, Antrim) (Top 8)

63kg George Bates (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 8)

69kg Aidan Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

75kg Michael Nevin (Portlaoise, Laois) (Top 6)

81kg Emmett Brennan (Dublin Docklands) (Top 6)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Smithfield, Dublin) (Top 4)

91+kg Dean Gardiner (Clonmel, Tipperary) (Top 4)

Female

51kg Carly McNaul (Ormeau Road, Belfast) (Top 6)

57kg Michaela Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

60kg Kellie Harrington (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 6)

69kg Christina Desmond (Fr Horgan’s, Cork, Garda BC) (Top 5)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Castlerea, Roscommon) (Top 4)


High-Performance Director: Bernard Dunne

Coaches: Zaur Antia, John Conlan, Dmitry Dimitruk

[ardybo]

Thanks for the link

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Olympic boxing qualifiers in London to be held behind closed doors

A European qualifying event for this year's Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament will be closed to spectators from Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) boxing task force which is organising the event in the Copper Box at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park said the decision was due to "concerns for public, athlete and volunteer welfare."

The boxing is also being streamed live on the Olympic Channel, with 53 bouts scheduled on Monday. Sunday was the second day of the competition, which has gathered together 342 male and female boxers from 43 countries with 77 Olympic spots available.

Coronavirus: Postponements and cancellations in sport

Another qualifier is scheduled for Paris in May, but that remains uncertain with sport across the continent being cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

There was disappointment for home fans when British women's welterweight Rosie Eccles went out on a 4-1 split decision to Russian fourth seed Saadat Dalgatova, who reaches the quarterfinals.

"Potentially one more chance... but I've got to prove now after that performance that I've earned my place at that second qualifier as well. I'm hoping my Olympic dream isn't over and that this was just a blip on the way," Eccles told the BBC.

Stateless Afghan refugee boxer Farid Walizadeh suffered a blow to his hopes of fighting at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after injury ruled him out of his lightweight fight.

Poland's Damian Durkacz was given a walkover to the last-16 in the 57-63kg category as a result of the 22-year-old's no-show.

Walizadeh, who fled Afghanistan on foot as a seven-year-old and ended up in an orphanage in Istanbul before being relocated to Portugal, can also still qualify in Paris.

Reaching Tokyo has always been a long shot, however, for the youngster who received a scholarship from the IOC last March to train full-time.

The Tokyo Games are due to begin in July. The London tournament is being organised by an IOC task force after the suspension of international federation AIBA last June because of issues concerning governance and finance.