Taylor going for sixth European gold in Bucharest

JOHNNY WATTERSON

Olympic champion Katie Taylor will hope to win her sixth successive European Championships in Bucharest later this year. The venue and dates for the championships were confirmed yesterday by the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA). They will take place in the Romanian capital from May 30th to June 8th.

The lightweight champion, who has never fought in the city before, presented jerseys to the Irish Women's Grand Slam-winning rugby team on Thursday. Ireland inside centre Jenny Murphy and Taylor both played soccer at Peamount United.

The European tournament will be the first major championship for Taylor since her win over Sofya Ochigava in the London Olympic Games. She also defeated the Russian in the final of the last European Championships in the Netherlands in 2011. Ochigava has not registered a fight since losing in the Olympic final.

Competes
The Bray 27-year-old, who won her first title in Norway in 2005, also competes in the World Championships in the autumn, with the venue for that yet to be decided, although Pete Taylor believes it will be South Korea.

It was originally to take place in Canada, who withdrew, citing the lack of a suitable venue for the tournament.

Pete Taylor confirmed his daughter was hoping to have three fights a month before the Europeans.

“We’ve two Americans lined up and a French girl coming over. At this stage we are trying to get different opponents, not girls that Katie has fought before. One of the Americans is 6ft 1in. So hopefully that will work out.”

European champion Paddy Barnes arrives down to the new club in Bray for two days sparring next week.Barnes, who won European gold in Moscow in 2010 and silver in Minsk last summer (he was withdrawn from the final injured), is a regular partner in the ring.

“Yeah, Paddy is coming down on Monday for two days’ sparring,” added Pete. “We’ve got to prepare for the Irish championships too (later this month). Michael (Conlan, Olympic bronze medallist) may come down as well. Paddy’s punching harder now so that’s good for Katie too. They have both sparred Katie before.”

The dates for the Irish fights prior to the European Championships are May 1st and 2nd in Cork’s Rochestown Hotel and May 3rd in Dungarvan.

The IABA has also confirmed their qualification guidelines for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

The 2015 World Championships will act as the first qualifier for men and the 2016 Women’s World Championships will act as the first qualifier for women.

There will be additional Continental qualifiers for men and women in 2016, with Olympic places available from the men’s World Series of Boxing and AIBA Pro Boxing, which will be introduced for the first time later this year.

For women there will be 36 places available for Rio in the same weight categories as London 2012, flyweight, Taylor’s division lightweight and middleweight.