IRELAND head coach Billy Walsh wants to see Irish boxing exit the 'bronze age' at the AIBA World Men's Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Jason Quigley and Joe Ward will be aiming to upgrade their guaranteed bronze medals to at least silver in today's middleweight and light-heavyweight semi-finals in Almaty. Quigley meets Russia's Artem Chebotarev around 10.30am and Ward faces Cuba's current world champion Julio Cesar De La Cruz-Peraza at approximately 3pm (Irish times). Irish boxing had won seven medals (all bronze) up to Almaty. Quigley and Ward improved that total to nine bronze, at least, by virtue of reaching the last four this week. Their presence in today's mix marks the first occasion two Irish male boxers have reached the semi-finals and won two medals from the same World Elite Championships. Tommy Corr (1982) Olympic champion Michael Carruth (1989), Damaen Kelly (1991), Stephen Kirk (1997), James Moore (, 2001) and John Joe Nevin (2009 and Baku 2011) have all been at this stage before. But all six boxers lost out at the last-four stage and had to settle for bronze. Likewise, Irish boxing has yet to advance a male boxer - Katie Taylor has reached four World Women's finals and won them all - to an AIBA World final.
Quigley, who is boxing out of his skin over the last two years, and Ward, the first teenager in the world to win AIBA medals at Junior, Youth and Elite level, have the arsenals to changes that statistic. 22-year-old Finn Valley BC (Donegal) orthodox Quigley meets a former European champion today, while Ward shrugs his shoulders at the prospect of trading leather with a current world champion. "I love meeting World champions. If they're Olympic and World champions all the better," said the Moate BC (Westmeath) leftie, who turns 20 next Wednesday. This is no idle boast as Ward hammered Russia's current Olympic champion Egor Mekhontsev, the 2009 world champion, in the 2012 Chemistry Cup final in Germany. Likewise with Quigley, who beat Ukraine's world gold medallist Evhen Khytrov en route to European gold in Belarus this summer. Quigley will be aiming for his 32nd straight win today.
Walsh, meanwhile, is happy with where the current Irish Elite champions, who spar regularly together, are at going into another massive day for Irish boxing. "I'm aware that Irish boxing has won bronze medals at this competition down through the years. We have the opportunity to break that duck tomorrow, he said yesterday. "The guys have the opportunity to reach the finals of the World Championships. As you would expect at this stage of the competition we're in against quality. "But someone is going to reach Saturday's finals. So, why can't that be us? The opposition we're in against are really amongst the best in the world. "Joe meets the current World champion and Jason a former European champion. We're happy where Joe and Jason are at going into the semi-finals. "Jason improved on his two previous performances on Wednesday and for the length of time Joe was in there on Wednesday he was absolutely electric. He was hurting his man and there was only going to be one outcome."