Event: Boxing
Who is he? From Kilkenny, middleweight (75kg) Darren O’Neill is one of six fighters Ireland are sending to London.
The qualified primary school teacher, now boxing full-time, has been dreaming of the Olympics since he was a boy and is set to compete in his first Games – having lost out to the late Darren Sutherland for a place in Beijing four years ago.
At 25, O’Neill is the elder statesman and captain of Billy Walsh’s boxing team.
Road to London: After securing his spot at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan back in October, O’Neill did not need to take part in the qualifiers in Turkey last April and has spent the past number of months training hard.
What he says about himself: “I won’t (change my tactics for the Olympics). Certain boxers do. I find if I concentrate too much on the others I tend to neglect my own strengths.”
Medal chances: A silver medalist at the 2010 European Championships, O’Neill is currently ranked seventh in the AIBA Men’s world rankings after dropping four places since April.
However, with No.4, Russia’s Maxim Koptyakov, not qualifying he expects to one of the six fighters to be seeded. The middleweight division is extremely competitive but Jimmy’s going all out here – Five.
On the Twitter: You can find him @DarrenONeil. He’s a fan of retweeting the odd motivational quote.
YouTube credit: otheman62
