Darren O’Neill must win five bouts in Baku if he is to secure his place at a second Olympic Games.
The London 2012 boxing team captain is one of four Irish boxers facing their last chance to book tickets to Rio at the final ‘amateur’ Olympic qualifier, which gets underway in Azerbaijan on Thursday evening, although no Irishman will be in action until the weekend.
Light-welterweight Dean Walsh, middleweight Michael O’Reilly and super-heavyweight Dean Gardiner are also competing at the tournament, while O’Neill will be the first Irish fighter in action on Saturday.
The Paulstown man has avoided an opening-night bout after the draw pitted him against Mustafa El Molla of Sweden, but he faces a huge challenge.
Walsh and O’Reilly must secure top-five places to qualify for Rio, but O’Neill and Gardiner face the more daunting task of claiming gold in their respective weight divisions if they are to reach the Olympics.
“Obviously I have a huge task ahead of me,” admitted O’Neill. “I have to win it outright and there’s some top-quality boxers left in it, but I’ve been going well this year.
“I have to have faith in myself and believe that if I perform as well as I can that I’ll get the correct decisions and get the rub of the green,” he added.
The draw takes place at around 2pm local time (11am Irish time) and O’Neill is hoping he may yet secure a bye to the next round, although the Paulstown man insists he is ready to go.
“Obviously I’d like to get a bye but we’ll see how it goes,” said O’Neill. “If I have to box [on Thursday], it would mean I’d have to have six wins in the space of 10 days, which wouldn’t be an easy task, but we’ll have to wait and see what the draw is. I’ll keep the head focused and the body right over the next few hours,” he added.
Up to 39 boxers are understood to be registered to compete at O’Neill’s 91kg heavyweight class, which means he potentially faces a hectic schedule of as many as six bouts at the tournament.
The Kilkenny man was unlucky not to book his ticket for Rio during the European Olympic qualifier in Turkey last April when he lost on a contentious split decision in the quarter-final to No 1 seed Abdulkadir Abdullayev of Azerbaijan at a stage when one more win would have secured his qualification.
Both O’Neill and Gardiner are up against it, while World and European medallists O’Reilly and Walsh will be under pressure to perform after head coach Zaur Antia and his fellow coaches opted to select them for the tournament despite the pair being sent home from last April’s qualifier in Turkey due to disciplinary issues.
Walsh and Gardiner will get their campaigns underway on Sunday, while O’Reilly fights on Monday as the No.1 middleweight seed.
“I have to have faith in myself and believe that if I perform as well as I can that I’ll get the correct decisions and get the rub of the green,”
Antia has reported that there are no injury concerns among the four-man team, who will not know their fight schedule until after the draw.
“Everybody is positive, everybody is in good shape,” said Antia. “We’ve had the normal amount of sparring, which should help. Everybody is calm and everybody is happy,” added the coach.
The Irish team arrived in Baku last week for a pre-tournament training camp, with Ireland’s six male Olympians - Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Joe Ward, David Oliver Joyce, Steven Donnelly and Brendan Irvine - also participating before they flew home last Tuesday.
Antia’s fellow coach John Conlan also returned to Ireland to monitor the Olympians’ training, but he believes that the Rio squad may soon increase in number if the four-man team in Baku can successfully build on their recent preparation.
“They had a great camp, it was very good sparring with about 15 different countries and there was a variation of styles that the boys got to work with,” said Conlan, father of world champion Michael.
“This is the last chance saloon for the others to qualify for Rio so they know what the job is, they know what they have to do.
“In some cases it’s five at the weight, in other cases it’s one, it’s just down to a bit of luck with the draw at the start. They just have to focus on the job they have to do,” added Conlan, who is also head of Ulster’s High Performance Unit.
With Olympic champion Katie Taylor also qualified for Rio, Ireland have seven boxers already on the plane for this summer’s Games.
The Baku tournament is the final qualifier for amateur-only boxers, with one further event in Venezuela next month open to boxers who have competed in APB and WSB competitions as well as professionals.
Mayo light-welterweight Ray Moylette is eligible to compete at that event but his Olympic chances will depend on how Walsh fares in Baku.
