Ireland's Olympic Boxing Team Has Been Named.

Brendan Irvine has been installed as captain.

Team Ireland has officially selected a team of seven boxers to compete in the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.

Six of the team are  to compete in their first Senior Games.

The boxing events take place in the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo from the 24 July – 8 August 2021.

Brendan Irvine, who qualified for Tokyo in the European Olympic Qualifiers in London last year, has been announced as team captain.

The squad includes former World Champion,  Kellie Harrington, Aoife O’Rourke, Michaela Walsh, Aidan Walsh and Emmet Brennan, all of whom secured spots at the European Olympic Qualifier in June,  along with European Games Champion Kurt Walker was also confirmed following the close of rankings.

Team Captain Irvine is looking forward to the competition,

“We are excited to just get stuck in now. We have a strong team, with every single person going into the Olympic Games with a real opportunity to do something special. The Olympics are like no other tournament, and I’m lucky to be going to my second. We all know that these Games will be like no other, and that it will be a new experience for each of us, but especially on the back of what has been a tough and testing year, we are ready.”

Team Ireland Boxing Performance Director, Bernard Dunne said,

“They’re coming off a really tough tournament in Paris, and we have seven now qualified. We are now recovering from that and starting to really push ourselves in training before we head out to our training camp in Miyazaki before we do our final preparations before we move down to the Olympic Village on the 19th July. We are ready, we have a strong team, both male and female. We just need to manage ourselves as best we can once we get out there and get good work against the other world class countries that are coming out to the training camp. Everyone is just looking forward to it. It has been pushed back, and there has been so much doubt over the past year and a half, so it’s great that it’s finally here. And that the guys get to perform on the biggest stage, which is the Olympic Games.” 

TEAM IRELAND BOXING TEAM:

Brendan Irvine (Flyweight 52kg male)

Kurt Walker (Featherweight 57kg male)

Aidan Walsh (Welterweight 69kg male)

Emmet Brennan (Light Heavyweight 81kg male)

Michaela Walsh (Featherweight 57kg female)

Kellie Harrington (Lightweight 60kg female)

Aoife O’Rourke (Middleweight 75kg female)

🇯🇵 TOKYO BOUND 🇯🇵

Congratulations & best of luck to the 7️⃣ athletes officially named to represent @TeamIreland in 🥊 at #Tokyo2020

A proud moment for friends, families & clubs across the country!

Full story: https://t.co/EqksNdcUkH#IABA #TeamIreland #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/YWl5YQDZCM

— IABA (@IABABOXING) June 29, 2021