Billy Walsh salutes Irish army

IABA Press Officer Bernard O’Neill

 

IRISH head coach Billy Walsh has saluted the Irish army for their exceptional input into Ireland’s training camp at the Curragh in Kildare.

The Irish Elite men’s and women’s squad finished up their training camp at the Irish army base on Friday and will return to training at the National Stadium gym on Tuesday.

Part of the training régime at the Curragh involved grueling runs up the braveheart hills, where scenes from the hit movie Braveheart featuring Mel Gibson were filmed.

 

The squad will depart for a training camp in Germany on February 28th and will also take part in the Chemistry Cup Multi-Nations in Halle, Germany from March 13th-18th.

 

Ireland will then have a tapering off training camp in the Ukraine before the final Olympic qualifier for European male boxers in Trabzon, Turkey from April 13th-22nd.

“The army bent over backwards to facilitate us and have really looked after us, said Billy Walsh.

 

“It was fantastic and we can’t give enough credit to the army for the way they treated us and looked after us. Their input into our training program was exceptional and we really appreciated it.”

 

Barring injury, Paddy Barnes, Mike McDonagh, Ross Hickey, Adam Nolan, Joe Ward, Tommy McCarthy and Con Sheehan will line out for Ireland at the Olympic qualifiers in Trabzon.

 

Darren O’Neill, John Joe Nevin and Michael Conlan have already qualified for the Olympics.