Quality list of fighters who won two senior championships in the same year
Ireland’s current Elite champions will join a select group that have won two Elite belts in the same year if they emerge victorious at the National Elite Championships in November and December.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) will run the National Elite Championships for a second time this year to facilitate Ireland’s female boxers at the 2016 World Women’s Elite Championships and Olympic Qualifiers in Kazakhstan next February.
Katie Taylor will be aiming for her sixth successive title in Central Asia next February less than sixteen months after winning an historic five in-a-row at the 2014 AIBA World Women’s Elite Championships in Korea.
Twelve years ago the IABA also ran the Elite Championships twice in the same twelve months to facilitate Ireland’s boxers at the European Elite Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Pula, Croatia.
The 2003 and “2004” Elite Championships were ran in February and December 2003. Paul Hyland, Andrew Murray, Paul McCloskey, Andy Lee, Kenneth Egan and Alan Reynolds did the double and emerged victorious from both tournaments.
Lee went on to qualify for the 2004 Olympic in Athens – Lee was the only Irish boxer to qualify for the 28th Olympiad – at the European Elite Championships a few weeks later in February 2004, the St Francis BC southpaw winning middleweight bronze, despite a hand injury, into the bargain in Croatia.
Click here for current Irish Elite male and female champions.
