Bolger very happy just to roll with the punches
Germany national boxing team head co
FOR MOST involved in the sporting world, the enforced shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic will have caused thundering headaches, but boxing coach Eddie Bolger is looking on the bright side, illustrating that even the darkest of clouds can part to reveal a silver lining.
As head of the German national team, all roads led to the Tokyo Olympics, which were pencilled in for this summer before being rescheduled for next year, but Bolger isn’t cursing his luck, instead embracing the extra preparation time.
The Wexford man took over the sleeping giants of world boxing in 2017 and believes an extra year in the Olympic cycle will certainly be more beneficial than detrimental to his young charges.
‘The beauty of Germany is that we have regional coaches, we have 20 or 30 paid coaches. There would be a smaller number in the elite circle and I correspond with these guys maybe every Monday to see how things are going for the week,’ he said.
‘Then I would contact the athletes every Friday and just make sure they’re in good form, motivated and dealing well with this timeframe. It’s all positive really for us. The extra year will probably do us more good than bad.
‘We’ve a young team. We’ve gone through four years of me being at the helm and we’ve been trying to identify young talent for 2020, or 2021 as it is is now, and ‘24, and with young talent you need international challenges and bouts, you need to live in training camps, you need to develop them technically and mentally, and another year is better for us,’ he added.
One of his star protégés, Hamsat Shadalov, booked his place in Tokyo at the European leg of Olympic boxing qualification in London in March, an event which had to be cancelled mid-stream due to the coronavirus crisis, with a victory over the European Elite champion, Ireland’s Kurt Walker, and Bolger admitted it’s nice to get one over his old bosses.
‘It’s big because it can be felt at home and all of a sudden people know you exist again. We got a difficult draw. It always is a difficult draw when you’re in an emerging team, you’re implementing new structures and identifying new talent.
‘I felt that Hamsat was one of our emerging talents, but then to meet Kurt. His first fight was very difficult too, a great performance against a guy from Belarus. And then facing Kurt we felt confident, but it was a tough draw and another great performance,’ he said.
Although the qualifiers in London were shrouded in controversy, as a handful of boxers were diagnosed with Covid-19 after competing at the event, which was suspended the day after Shadalov’s victory over Walker at the Copperbox Arena, Bolger again accentuated the positives.
‘Boxers want to box and coaches want to coach, and we were really hoping we’d get to the end of it. I remember commenting after seeing the draw, I hope it’s cancelled and we’ll start again,’ he said.
‘It was probably the worst scenario that could have happened that it was cancelled halfway through it, but it kind of did end on a high. Young Brendan Irvine qualified for Ireland, we got one over the line, GB got two over the line, so after the break there’s a little bit of comfort that we’ve already got one qualified.
‘Now we can plan for an opponent months in advance or a year in advance, which doesn’t normally happen in Olympic boxing,’ he said.
Now that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, Bolger won’t be wasting time in ramping up preparations for the Tokyo spectacle, having already sent out invitations to countries to compete in the Cologne Cup in October.
He will be firmly focused on the remaining European qualifiers and the rescheduled World Olympic qualifying tournament in Paris when he returns to the centre of excellence in Heidelberg.
‘We’ve a couple on the verge of getting a chance to qualify, getting to that final bout. We’ve six left in the competition, including Hamsat, who will be trying to get a seeding for Tokyo.
‘For me on my first Olympic cycle, I’d rather go with a small quality team but I’ll take as many as I can get. You hope to get as many as you can over the line, but three, four or five would be a great achievement in our first cycle working together,’ he said.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and getting his team back to anywhere near the heights that Germany enjoyed in the past won’t be achieved overnight, but Bolger has methodically put a plan in place and his approach is slowly starting to pay dividends.
‘The talent pool is excellent and coaching is top-notch. The facilities are second to none throughout the world, absolutely top class.
‘I think where the fault was, was just adapting and changing from the old GDR [German Democratic Republic] system. They needed somebody fresh to come in and that could have been anybody.
‘Just somebody to come in and identify what world class was and what people are doing in the present environment, the guys that are winning and getting on podiums, or the countries that are consistently getting on podiums.
‘We needed to see what these are doing. I took the programmes from Ireland and we changed a little bit, and you can see the benefits,’ he said.
‘It’s going to take a long time. The high performance system in Dublin was introduced in 2002 I believe, full-time training. I think the first Olympic medal was 2008, so it does take a long time.
‘Definitely to change the mindset of people that had so much success in the GDR time it’s difficult. In the last year or two we’ve seen change and progress,’ said the native of Liam Mellows Park in Wexford town.
Bolger was born into a family steeped in boxing, with the O’Connors, on his mother’s side of the family, in particular starring in their days in the ring.
‘That’s how I really got into boxing. I used to spend a lot of time in my grandmother’s. The house was full of trophies and medals, so that’s where the curiousity began.
‘I joined the C.B.S. boxing club around ’78 when I was eight. It was the original club and when I joined there was probably two clubs, Wexford C.B.S. and St. Joseph’s.
‘There was a lot of good boxers, Joe Fenlon, Mick Cullen, Jimmy Meyler, lots that came up through the C.B.S. They had a very intelligen life coach, in Aidan O
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It’s all positive really for us. The extra year will do us more good than bad - Bolger on Germany’s Olympic hopes