THE Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) “fully intend” to mark Kellie Harrington’s Olympic gold medal in the coming weeks, according to president Dominic O’Rourke – and possibly on finals night of the upcoming Irish Elite Championships.
Golden girl Harrington was whisked off on an open top bus through the city upon her return from Tokyo last week, with supporters lining the streets to welcome her back to Dublin.
The IABA was criticised for not capitalising on Irish success at London 2012 when Katie Taylor’s historic gold medal triumph, silver for John Joe Nevin and bronze for Belfast pair Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan prompted calls for some form of homecoming show at the National Stadium.
Michael Carruth had to wait until the February after his podium-topping performance at Barcelona 1992 before taking on Holy Trinity’s Eddie Fisher before a full house at South Circular Road, with Harrington – as well as Belfast’s bronze medallist Aidan Walsh - surely deserving of a similar platform.
Bigger plans may be made for down the line but, with a provisional September 17 start date for the Irish Elite Championships announced last week, and finals night on the first weekend in October, O’Rourke says the Association intends to recognise the 31-year-old’s achievement.
“Because of Covid we’ve been very much restricted, but hopefully by September we will be back to full operation, and we fully intend to do something for Kellie. There will be something done,” said the Kildare man.
“Finals night would be an option – we don’t know if she might even enter, we’re not quite sure yet, or you could have an exhibition or something like that.
“There’s no doubt that Kellie’s success has really struck home with people, in her own community and right across Ireland. She’s a brilliant ambassador for the sport, she’s everybody’s friend and well liked. Despite her success, she has never forgotten where she came from.”
And while the St Mary’s lightweight mulls over her next move, O’Rourke hopes to see Harrington remain in the amateur ranks. He knows, however, that whatever her decision, Harrington will continue to inspire the next generation of young female boxers.
“Obviously there was a huge increase in interest after Katie Taylor in London, and I think you’ll see something similar coming off the back of Tokyo.
“Our female boxing programme is brilliant. We’ve won medals at European and World youth and juniors, there is a tremendous interest in boxing at the minute and there’s some phenomenal talent coming through.
“Unfortunately Covid knocked us back because we haven’t been able to run youth and junior championships but if we can get it up and running at local level then we can look at national championships and maybe getting home or away international experience.”
O’Rourke revealed that TG4 are already planning to broadcast the Irish Elite Championship finals, but hopes the post-Tokyo positivity can convince national broadcaster RTE to show some faith in the amateur game.
Their coverage of the Olympic Games was top class, not least the analysis and insight of 2008 Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Egan and Eric Donovan - O’Rourke’s former protégé at St Michael’s, Athy.
It would be a shame not to build on that momentum, says the IABA president.
“We have TG4 on board for the finals, which might have to run over two nights because of the increased weights, but I’m hoping they will come on board for the full championships rather than just the finals.
“Maybe RTE will come back on board as well. We have the interest there at the moment and you have to try and make the most of that.
“You saw the likes of Eric and Kenny through the Olympics, we need to be using people like that, the way they’re able to talk, to analyse boxing. They’re good at what they do, they know what they’re talking about and their part in the Olympics went down very well too.
“We need to tap into that.”
OFF LEAD
WHEN the announcement was made last Friday that the 2021 Irish Elite Championships would get under way on the provisional date of September 17, it left five weeks for boxers and coaches across the country to plot an accelerated course before the first bell rings.
There has been no competitive amateur boxing in Ireland since the Ulster Elites at the end of February 2020, with mooted Irish Elite dates for January and April of this year both falling by the wayside as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Indeed, it is only now that clubs registered for next month’s elites will be allowed to spar boxers from outside their own clubs as preparation. The short notice, unsurprisingly, hasn’t gone down well with some.
Former IABA president Pat Ryan insists no boxers from his Portlaoise club will be entering, describing it as “purely a cosmetic exercise”.
“Why can they not put a definite date on these championships?” he asked in a statement on Facebook.
“Portlaoise boxing club will not be participating in these championships. This decision has been taken solely in the interest of the health and safety of our boxers, members, and all of those who serve our boxers.
“It’s too short notice, and not sufficient time for preparation. It’s purely a cosmetic exercise, badly thought out and very disrespectful to the vast majority of our boxers, coaches, clubs and all of those who administer boxing in the 32 counties.
“It’s obvious that there are boxers training in Abbotstown who are privileged to have this knowledge and information - a level playing field?
“Let us train properly, attend training camps, and participate in pre-competition tournaments, to assist our boxers with the correct, proper, and appropriate preparation, as has been afforded to all those boxers who are already training in the High Performance unit.
“This decision taken has been grossly unfair, and is not transparent.”
However, current IABA president Dominic O’Rourke insists the Association has an eye on the World Championships, which run from October 13-23, as Ireland intend to send a team to Poland.
“We’re damned if we did and damned if we didn’t,” he said regarding criticism of boxing’s imminent return.
“One minute they’re giving out to us about there being no boxing, then the minute you announce there is boxing, well it’s too soon.
“We’ve announced other dates and they’ve all been cancelled. People were saying ‘there’s no communication’, but we didn’t want to put out a date and give people false hope for it to be cancelled again.
“The Worlds are in October, so at least we will be able to get back boxing, highlight the seniors and then look at the youths, juniors and schoolboys/schoolgirls because we’re quite conscious of the young people coming through and their need for competition.”
