Olympic hopefuls have few chances to qualify

All 12 Irish boxing champions still hold hopes of places at the Sydney Olympics after the championship finals at the National Stadium on Friday night. There is a danger, however, that none will get through and some have only one opportunity to qualify while others may have no more than two.

The qualifying tournaments will be held in March and early April in Halle (Germany), Liverpool (England) and Venice (Italy) and details of who will box at the various weights at these venues have yet to be decided.

In the meantime, the Irish contingent will travel to Crystal Palace in London next week for special training with the British squad. It is also likely that the British will be invited back to Dublin later in the month.

In charge of the Irish team in London will be Nicholas Hernandez Cruz, the Cuban coach who has now been awarded Irish citizenship. He will be joined by the former Irish champion Billy Walsh and Phil Sutcliffe.

At a meeting of the central council of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association on Saturday, it was agreed that every effort would be made to ensure that a strong Irish contingent would be sent to the European Championships in Tempera, Finland, in May, and the Olympics in Australia in the autumn.

It was also pointed out that following the allocation of a grant of £1.3 m from the Government to revamp the National Stadium on South Circular Road there would be a shortfall of something in the region of £300,000 and that efforts would be made to raise this amount of money so that the project could go ahead and be completed in time for next year's national championships.

The president of the association, Breandan O Conaire, told the delegates at the meeting that the future of Irish boxing was of a very important nature and that every effort would be made to take full advantage of the generosity which they had experienced.

He expressed the view that Irish boxing and sport in general would benefit enormously. "However, I am aware that it is important for all of us that we put our backs behind this scheme for refurbishment of the National Stadium . . . and I am confident that boxing people will respond positively to our efforts," he said.