DEFENDING CHAMPION KELLIE HARRINGTON SEEDED THIRD IN PARIS OLYMPICS BOXING DRAW
Defending Olympic champion Kellie Harrington, three-time European middleweight gold medallist Aoife O’Rourke and Jack Marley will be the only seeded Irish boxers at next month’s Paris Olympics.
Only boxers who won gold medals in their respective continental championships in the last year were eligible to be considered as one of the top five seeds in each of the 13 weight divisions.
The silver medallists in the European, Asian and American championships filled the other seeded positions.
So, though Michaela Walsh and Dean Clancy also qualified for the Paris Games at the European Games in Krakow last summer, they were beaten in the quarter-finals so were not eligible to be seeded.
Seeded boxers are be kept apart in the early rounds of the tournament in Paris with the number one and two seeded fighters on opposite sides of the draw.
Selecting the order of the seeds was done via a convoluted system drawn up by the Paris Boxing Unit which is organising the tournament on behalf of the International Olympic Committee.
The European, Asian and American champions were guaranteed a top four seeding based on a random draw. The Oceania and African champions filled the remaining slot left in the top four as well as the number five seed.
There was a separate draw to determine seedings 6,7 and 8 between the silver medallists in the European, Asian and American championships. The draw took place on Thursday.
Kellie Harrington will be the third seed in the lightweight division behind number one seed China’s Yang Wenlu, a bronze medallist at last year’s World championships in New Delhi.
World professional IBF lightweight championship and current amateur world 60kg champion Beatrice Ferreira from Brazil is the number two seed. Harrington beat Ferreira in the lightweight final at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Meanwhile, in the 75kg division Aoife O’Rourke will be the number two seed behind veteran Chinese middleweight Li Quan, who beat O’Rourke in the first round in Tokyo before going on to win the silver medal. She also medalled at the Rio Games in 2016 and the 34-year-old has won three world championship medals but lost to the Castlerea fighter in the Strandja Cup tournament in Sofia in February.
Heavyweight Jack Marley, who will make his Olympic debut in Paris is the number-seven seed in a division in which there are just sixteen boxers competing.
Meanwhile, the Olympic Federation of Ireland has officially selected the ten boxers who will compete for Team Ireland at the Games. Four of the team, the Walsh siblings from Belfast as well as Kellie Harrington and Aoife O’Rourke, boxed in the Tokyo Games three years ago.
The preliminary rounds of the boxing take place in the Arena Paris Nord, while the semi-finals and the finals will be held in the iconic Roland Garros Stadium.
Boxing is Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport, boasting 18 of our 38 medals.
Olympic Champion, Kellie Harrington said: “I’m heading out for my second Olympic Games, and I can’t wait. It’s a big team, we have ten boxers, which is fantastic. The biggest difference between Tokyo and this Olympics is that there will be people in the crowd, and with that a lot of noise, so it will be all about us controlling our emotions.
"I’m glad to be part of history, as this will be the hundredth year that Team Ireland competed in the Olympic Games – so we are already part of history.”
Speaking on the official selection, Performance Director, Tricia Heberle said,
“The Olympic Games is the pinnacle of our sport. That we have qualified the largest Boxing team since Rome of 1960, speaks not only to the strength of our High Performance programme, supported by the OFI, Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland, but also to the quality of coaching in the clubs in which our Paris athletes began their boxing careers.
“Team Ireland is the only NOC in Europe to have qualified a full team of women, which is a remarkable achievement given that Paris 2024 is only the fourth Olympic cycle in which women may box,” she added.
The team is Kellie Harrington (Dublin) Women’s 60kg; Aidan Walsh (Belfast) Men’s 71kg; Aoife O’Rourke (Castlerea) Women’s 75kg; Daina Moorehouse (Bray) Women’s 50kg; Dean Clancy (Sligo) Men’s 63.5kg; Grainne Walsh (Tullamore) Women’s 66kg; Jude Gallagher (Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone) Men’s 57kg; Jenny Lehane (Ashbourne, Co. Meath) Women’s 54kg; Jack Marley (Sallynoggin, Dublin) Men’s 92kg, Michaela Walsh (Belfast) Women’s 57kg.
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2024-06-28T17:46:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd