Team Ireland land in Ukraine on the hunt for glory

Team Ireland arrived in Kharkiv on Monday evening for their final training camp ahead of the opening bell for the European Championships in mid-June.

This article originally was published on rte.ia

With the IABA plagued by in-fighting and fallouts, High-Performance Director Bernard Dunne is keen for the travelling Irish to let their fighting do the talking as they target medals in Ukraine.

Last Friday, Gerry O’Mahony, a member of the IABA’s divided Board of Directors, has predicted that a dispute between the organisation’s two warring factions will end up in court.

The IABA board has been divided over the question of who is the rightful chairman of the association, with the incumbent Joe Christle and rival claimant David O’Brien both making claims to the title.

It's been a damaging fortnight for the organisation, but Dunne is confident the team can get people talking about the action inside the ring rather than outside it again.

"We’ve a good mixture of experience and youths coming through," he said. 

"We’re going to focus on each individual fight and we’ll just try to perform to the best of our capabilities. That’s the process we’re going to take out here."

Boxing commences on 16 June at the Lokomotyv Sports Palace.

The competition, the 42nd edition of the Championships since 1925, is the sole qualifier for the World Elite Championships in Hamburg, Germany in August/September.

The top eight boxers (the quarter-finalists) in each weight in Kharkiv qualify for Hamburg.

The flyweights, welterweights and super-heavyweights are in action on day 1 of the championships.

A dispute over selection for Ireland's boxing team for the European Championships was resolved when Dean Gardiner won a split decision victory over Martin Keenan in a controversial super-heavyweight box-off at the National Stadium to stamp his ticket to the Europeans.