“It would be a travesty if Kenny was to depart the amateur scene because he has so much to offer,” he said. It is common knowledge that promoters have been showing a huge interest since he came home from Beijing. I just hope that we can keep him.
| The build up to London 2012 has already begun but it will take on a new dimension tonight when the tournament to select the team for the European Championships at the National Stadium tonight gets under way.
None of the Olympic medallists will take part to allow them space to recover from the heavy post-Olympic schedules. “If the Olympic medallists were go to the European championships in Liverpool next month they would be going under tremendous pressure,” Walsh admitted. “From that point of view we did not wish them to take part in this tournament although John Joe Joyce will be taking part. We have been back in business for the past two weeks and we are already working on developing a new crop of boxers, some of home we would like to think will represent us at the London Olympics. The team for the European championships in Liverpool (November 5-15) will number no more than six — because of financial restraints and the pool of talent available- but Walsh feels that they will all be medal prospects. He put recently married David Oliver Joyce right at the top of the list insisting that he hit form just too late for the Olympic qualifiers. “Since then he has won a gold medal at the EU championships and he not only beat France’s Olympic silver medallist — he put him on the floor — so he will be a big hitter on our 2012 team,” he said. The finals of European Qualifier take place this night week and the following week the team will go to the GeeBee tournament in Tampere and then a training camp with the British and French teams in Sheffield in the lead up to the European championships. |
