Weight Changes Confirmed for 2019 National Elite Senior Championships

The changed weight classes have been confirmed for the Irish National Elite Championships next February.

Last year it was announced that two of the ten men’s weights would be dropped from the Olympic roster and that two categories would be added for the women to bring their total number of classes up to five.

Welterweight (69kg) and Featherweight (57kg) were the two weight classes that were to be added for women and, in recent months it has emerged that men would lose the Light Flyweight (49kg) and Lightweight (60kg) classes.

In addition to this, Men’s Bantamweight will move up one kilogram from 56kg to 57kg and become known as Featherweight, while Light Welterweight will drop from 64kg to 63kg.

All these moves have been confirmed today by the Irish Athletic Boxing Association who have released the classes for the next Elite tournament.

However, in a surprise, light flyweight and lightweight remain on the roster for the Elites despite their absence from the Olympics.

This will lead to some interesting decisions for fighters at these weights.

In recent months, a number of fighters have expressed their intention to move up or down to Olympic eligible weights under the assumption that their class has been removed. Now, however, they face a decision over whether to attempt to win an Irish Elite title in their most natural weight or move up or down to try get on the Olympic conveyor belt – should boxing even feature at Tokyo 2020!

Another change also sees Women’s Light Heavyweight drop from 81kg to 80kg and, similarly, Women’s Heavyweight changes to +80kg

Men’s weights for 2019 Elite Championships 49kg, 52kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg, 91+kg
(Olympic weights underlined)

Women’s weights for 2019 Elite Championships:48kg, 51kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 80kg, 80+kg
(Olympic weights underlined)

The dates for the 2019 National Elite Championships are [stages to be confirmed based on entry levels] Friday February 8th and Saturday February 9th (preliminaries), Friday February 15th and Friday February 16th (semi finals), Friday February 22nd (finals), and Saturday February 23rd (overflow).