Four Irish boxers in Olympic qualification action today

Four Irish boxers are in action at the 43-nation European qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 at the Copperbox Box Arena in London today.

Click here for schedule and here for Day 1 results.

George Bates, Emmett Brennan, and Kiril Afanasev are betwen the ropes.

The Dublin trio meet Leon Domingue of Spain, Bosnia’s Radenko Tomic and Georgia’s Begadaze Nikoloz for places in the last 16.

Cork southpaw Desmond faces Italy’s No. 3 seed Angela Carina two wins away from booking a welterweight ticket at the 32nd Olympiad.

The Desmond versus Carina three-rounder was scheduled for Tuesday but has been brought forward.

The qualifiers got underway yesterday but no Irish were involved.

Boxing begins at 12 noon today. A second session starts at 6pm.

European Qualifiers for Tokyo 2020

Copperbox Arena London March 13/24

March 15

Last 32

63kg George Bates (Ireland) v Leon Dominguez (Spain)

81kg Emmett Brennan (Ireland) v Radenko Tomic (Bosnia)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Ireland) v Begadze Nikoloz (Georgia)

Last 16

69kg Christina Desmond (Ireland) v Angela Carina (Italy)

March 16

Last 32

69kg Aidan Walsh (Ireland) v Pavel Kamanin (Spain)

75kg Michael Nevin (Ireland) v Pas der Van (Netherlands)

Last 16

52kg Brendan Irvine (Ireland) v Istavan Szaka (Hungary)

51kg Carly McNaul (Ireland) v Charley Davison (Team Great Britain)

57kg Kurt Walker (Ireland) v Hamsat Shadolov (Germany)

March 17

Last 16

57kg Michaela Walsh (Ireland) v Melissa Morensen (Denmark) or Mona Mestian (France)

60kg Kellie Harrington (Ireland) v Aneta Rygielska (Poland)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Ireland) v Viktoriya Kebikava (Belarus)

March 18

Last 16

91kg+ Dean Gardiner (Ireland) v Petar Belberov (Bulgaria)

Irish squad

(Olympic qualification standard in brackets)

Male

52kg Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s, Antrim) Cpt (Top 8)

57kg Kurt Walker (Canal, Antrim) (Top 8)

63kg George Bates (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 8)

69kg Aidan Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

75kg Michael Nevin (Portlaoise, Laois) (Top 6)

81kg Emmett Brennan (Dublin Docklands) (Top 6)

91kg Kiril Afanasev (Smithfield, Dublin) (Top 4)

91+kg Dean Gardiner (Clonmel, Tipperary) (Top 4)

Female

51kg Carly McNaul (Ormeau Road, Belfast) (Top 6)

57kg Michaela Walsh (Monkstown, Antrim) (Top 6)

60kg Kellie Harrington (St Mary’s, Dublin) (Top 6)

69kg Christina Desmond (Fr Horgan’s, Cork, Garda BC) (Top 5)

75kg Aoife O’Rourke (Castlerea, Roscommon) (Top 4)

High-Performance Director: Bernard Dunne

Coaches: Zaur Antia, John Conlan, Dmitry Dimitruk