WHETHER OR NOT the Olympics actually take place in Tokyo this summer is another story, but the European leg of boxing qualification is due to commence as scheduled in London from this Saturday.
The Pan-American qualifiers pencilled in to start in Buenos Aires later this month have been postponed in light of measures taken by the Argentine government to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but the IOC told The42 on Tuesday that their Boxing Task Force (BTF) — overseeing the sport in place of the disgraced world governing body AIBA — and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) are “continuing the preparations for the Boxing Road to Tokyo European qualifier in London (GBR) as scheduled”.
They added, however, that both the BTF and the LOC are “continuously monitoring the situation through their medical experts, and will follow the guidance of national health institutions before and during the event. If the schedule of the event should change, the BTF will readily inform the teams, officials and the media.”
So, from the points of view of the 342 fighters from 45 competing countries — including Italy, who left for London prior to their nation’s travel ban — it’s business as usual. As of now, at least.
Ireland will have a boxer bidding for qualification in every available weight category (eight for men, five for women). Bernard Dunne’s 13-strong team set off for the English capital on Wednesday, each of them aiming to book their seats on the longer flight to the Far East in four months’ time.
Chief among them is Kellie Harrington, the former world champion who might yet play a major role in one of the most fascinating prospective stories of the 10-day tournament at the Copper Box Arena.
Harrington, 30, is seeded second at 60kg beneath her longtime rival, Mira Potkonen. The wrecking-ball Finn, 39, is affectionately described by aficionados on this island as ‘the scourge of Irish boxing’: she famously dumped Katie Taylor out at the quarter-final stage of Rio 2016 and has since beaten Harrington and fellow Irish lightweight standout Amy Broadhurst three times each.
Harrington — who missed most of last year through a thumb injury, including a defence of her world-champion reign — has more than closed the gap and might well have gotten the nod in their last two encounters. The Dubliner certainly thought so as Potkonen pipped her to gold at the Stranja Multi-Nations tournament in Bulgaria in January and, judging by the cheeky smile flashed at her by Potkonen, her arm held aloft by the referee, so did she.
The world’s top two fighters are on opposite sides of the draw in London and so if they meet in the final as they tend to, each woman will have already booked her place in Tokyo. A semi will be enough.
However, the road to the last four is not without its potential perils. Another fighter connected to 2012 Olympic champion Taylor presents a potential spanner in the works for Harrington, Potkonen and their fellow seeds Agnes Alexiusson of Sweden and Stanimira Petrova of Bulgaria.
Belgium’s Delfine Persoon, who gave Taylor hell for 10 rounds and was unfortunate not to have her own arm raised following an all-time great women’s prizefight at Madison Square Garden last June, has temporarily reverted to the amateur ranks in a bid to achieve her own long-held Olympic dream.
Persoon is unseeded and, despite a neck hernia which has weakened her left arm and hampered her preparations, says she’s set to compete in London.
And so, for all of the calls for Taylor to rematch the West Flanders warrior, there is a far greater chance that Persoon will first meet Taylor’s successor in the 60kg amateur ranks.
The concern for Persoon is that in the paid ranks, she tends to take four or five rounds to really get motoring; in the amateurs, she’ll have only three rounds with which to inflict damage.
“With my trainer, I mainly worked on my explosiveness,” she said before departing for London. “I have to be there from the first second. It’s not like in professional fights where you can wait and test. No, you have to be there from the first bell. We worked a lot in between and my footwork was also adjusted a little.”
Her inclusion, and mouth-watering potential clashes with the likes of Harrington or Potkonen, add a head-turning dynamic to the women’s lightweight division in London.
But even if one, or all, of Harrington, Potkonen and Persoon fail to achieve automatic qualification by way of reaching the last four, they will have a backdoor opportunity provided they make the quarters. The four losing quarter-finalists will compete in box-offs, with the two winners joining the top four in Tokyo.
And for all fighters, a second or third bite of the cherry will come in the shape of a global qualification event — currently scheduled for Paris in May.
As for Harrington’s Irish team-mates, 2019 European champion Kurt Walker — the Lisburn native who has picked up the mantle from his close friend Michael Conlan at 57kg — is one of two other seeded fighters from these shores.
The 25-year-old is the second seed behind his archnemesis Peter McGrail of Britain. Walker has beaten McGrail en route to winning European Union and European gold in their last two outings, with Liverpool’s McGrail having won the previous two, but again, they can only meet in the final in London and will have each safely qualified for Tokyo should that come to pass.
With eight Olympic spots up for grabs at featherweight and Walker due to avoid the preliminary rounds, he may only have to win once to reach a quarter-final which would suffice to seal his Olympic participation.
Belfast’s Michaela Walsh is Ireland’s only other seeded fighter, third in the women’s 57kg category behind mixed martial arts convert Jemyma Betrian of the Netherlands (2) who won bronze at last year’s Worlds, and Russia’s Liudmila Vorontsova (1) who edged Walsh on a 4-1 split decision at the last-16 stage of the same tournament before taking silver. There are six spots available in Walsh’s division — like the lightweights, four semi-finalists and two beaten quarter-finalist box-off winners will qualify for the Games. Like Walker,
Walsh will fancy her chances. She usually does. And so will her younger brother, Aidan, whose bolt-from-the-blue rise through the men’s 69kg ranks saw him beat off competition from highly rated talents such as Galway’s Kieran Molloy to become ‘the guy’ for Ireland at welterweight.
Though unseeded, the reigning Irish Elite champion will certainly sense an opportunity to gatecrash the top four, with seeds Yevhenii Barabanov of Ukraine (4) scarcely unbeatable, Lorenzo Sotomayor (3) — a Cuban-born Azerbaijani silver medallist at Rio 2016 — perhaps pushing on a touch at 35, and reigning world champion Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia (2) perhaps struggling a touch for fitness after losing his last bout on a walkover in December.
Elsewhere, Roscommon’s Aoife O’Rourke is unfortunate that the European Championships are not taken into consideration for seedings. She actually beat the third seed, Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland, in last year’s Euro decider in Madrid, but could do with avoiding Britain’s top seed Lauren Price — the Welshwoman has had her number in the past.
Ireland will be captained by Brendan Irvine, the only boxer of the 13 with past Olympic experience. The 23-year-old ‘Wee Rooster’ is unseeded at 52kg.
The draw for qualification will be made on Friday, with action getting under way at the Copper Box on Saturday.
Team Ireland
- Ceire Smith (51kg)
- Michaela Walsh (57kg)
- Kellie Harrington (60kg)
- Christina Desmond (69kg)
- Aoife O’Rourke (75kg)
- Brendan Irvine (52kg)
- Kurt Walker (57kg)
- George Bates (63kg)
- Aidan Walsh (69kg)
- Michael Nevin (75g)
- Emmett Brennan (81kg)
- Kirill Afanasev (91kg)
- Dean Gardiner (91kg+)
