Taylor seeks National recognition

World, European and European Union Lightweight champion Katie Taylor will have the opportunity to win the one honour she doesn't have at the upcoming Elite Irish Senior Championships.

Taylor will enter the Championships which begin at the National Stadium in Dublin later this month, opening the door for the Bray woman to claim the one belt that has eluded her so far.

The 2010 tournament, which will be run over three weekends, marks the first time that women have competed in the blue ribband event of Irish amateur boxing.

Olympic medalists and defending champs Ken Egan and Paddy Barnes and World and European Youth champions Ray Moylette
and Jason Quigley will also enter, along with 2009 World Senior Championships bronze medalist and defending champ John Joe Nevin.

Meanwhile, 2008 Olympian John Joe Joyce will move up to welterweight and could end up meeting his own St Michael's Athy team-mate Roy Sheahan, a gold medal winner at the 2007 European Union Championships in Dublin.

Egan who is aiming for his tenth Irish senior title in row, may renew acquaintances with AIBA World Youth bronze medalist Tommy McCarthy in a repeat of last years final, which Egan won.

That victory ensured that he became the only Irish boxer in the 99 year history of the IABA to win nine consecutive Irish senior belts, but now he wants to make it ten on the trot, and match Jim O'Sullivan's record.

The Elite Irish Senior Championships begin on 19 February and conclude on the weekend of 5/6 March.