Boxers confident, ready and waiting in Beijing

BOXING:THEY WERE several days into the training camp at Vladivostok when the Irish boxing team discovered the Russian town - pronounced Fladi-vosh-tock - translates as "conquering the east". How about that? And nothing more was said.

From far eastern Russia, they've come further east again - 5,100 miles east of you, to be exact - and since Monday have been settling into the more salubrious surroundings of the Athletes Village. Salubrious, because Vladivostok was pretty rough - as it was intended to be.

Tomorrow, the five Irish boxers that came quietly and confidently into Beijing - all first-time Olympians - will head down to the 13,000-seater Workers' Indoor Gymnasium, weigh in, and then wait for their names to go into the hat. When it comes to Olympic boxing, so much of it comes down to the luck of the draw.

We know middleweight Darren Sutherland and light heavyweight Kenny Egan will return there on Saturday morning, unless they get one of the four byes past the first bout. In that case, they'll be into the last 16 and just two bouts away from a medal.

Likewise, light welterweight John Joe Joyce will probably fight first on Sunday; bantamweight John Joe Nevin on Tuesday; and light flyweight Paddy Barnes not until next Wednesday. Naturally, they're not counting on a bye. They're not counting on anything except putting up a fight.

"It's all about performances," says Gary Keegan, Irish boxing high performance manager. "They've all set their own targets, in terms of what they want to achieve. But all they have control over is one fight at a time. If you get ahead of yourself, you're out of the game. That has happened to these guys, several times, and it's taken them a while to learn from that.

"I think it's little unfair to be throwing up talk of medals. But we've worked exceptionally hard as a programme. It has already delivered, to get us where we are. If they can bring the preparation to the ring, they have a chance. And look, they are going to be a tough draw, for anyone."

For the past six years, Keegan has overseen the elite plan of Irish boxing, along with team manager Jim Walsh and several other support personnel. The Athens Olympics four years ago came too soon for that plan to flourish, but now it has. Ireland qualified five boxers for what have been the most difficult Olympics to get into. In Athens, the pool of qualifying nations was 45; here it is 75. The mighty Cubans have just 10 boxers in Beijing, their smallest team ever.

It hasn't happened by accident. Keegan knows the difference between being well prepared, and properly prepared, which is why he took all five boxers to Vladivostok for nine days of muscling with the Russians at their pre-Olympic training camp. They had 70 boxers there, including European champion Artur Beterbiev at light heavyweight (Egan's division), and two-time world champion Matvei Korobov at middleweight (Sutherland's division).

"They were rough enough facilities up there," says Keegan, "but what we expected. What we planned for. The only big problem was that when we arrived at the hotel, it wasn't a hotel at all. It was a hostel. The rooms were very small. Like we had the two big men, Darren and Kenny in with John Joe Nevin, in one room, which was only a little bit bigger than a box room, and the beds a little bit wider than a chair.

"We talked about getting them into a hotel, but Kenny just said we're here to do business, to prepare for the Olympic Games. We're happy to stay here. So that was it. We shifted rooms around a little bit, but everyone was happy. No complaints. That's how focused they are. They aren't interested in comforts."

The Irish boxers then travelled on to Beijing confident, ready and waiting: "Look, they're all in good form. It's all about keeping that now until they step into the ring."