Wexford man Eddie in fighters’ corner in Rio
COMPETITION MUCH TOUGHER THAN LONDON SAYS COACH
IRISH National High Performance Coach Eddie Bolger has spoken of his pride of the Irish fighters in Rio, despite the team’s lack of success on boxing’s greatest stage.
Speaking from the Irish training camp in Rio yesterday (Monday), Bolger, 47, of Liam Mellows Park, in Wexford, said the team performed well, pointing out that the competition was much tougher in this Olympics compared to four years ago in London.
Bolger is a former member of Wexford CBS boxing club and progressed from boxing to training Irish fighters.
He said both the men’s team and Katie Taylor prepared well for the competition but the controversy surrounding Michael O’Reilly’s positive drugs test for doping shocked the team, impacting it in a negative way.
Bolger said: ‘Expectations were very high but we deserved that. We still believe we have the best coach in the world in Zaur Antia. He has lived in Billy Walsh’s shadow for a long time unfairly. Zaur hasn’t received a lot of credit while Billy was pursuing a career as a high performance director.’
The narrow nature of some of the defeats was particularly difficult for Bolger and the Irish team to take.
‘ This competition has been tougher than London. It’s more pro oriented and more physical and the scoring system is different.
‘You can’t run around the ring if you’ve gotten a few points up.We lost almost every fight on split decisions. The performances have been brilliant. We couldn’t have done any more to prepare. First and foremost you have to get the performance right.’
Bolger said the Irish team was comprised of either more mature boxers or very young fighters, adding that it will be more balanced at Tokyo 2020.
He said the shock exit of medal contender light heavyweight Joe Ward in the preliminary round was disappointing.
‘You can say that he underachieved but can a 22-year-old really underachieve. We got a bit of a shock with the doping result, but there is nothing really to pinpoint or no-one to blame. It’s just a very competitive competition.’
Bolger helped to prepare the Irish boxers for London 2012 but was not in attendance at the games as his accreditations let him down.
‘It has been great. We’re training in a car park basement, but it’s always been like that.’
He said he enjoyed his experience at the Rio Olympic Games and stressed the importance of having such brilliant support at home.
‘Irish boxers always give value for money. Stephen Donnelly was fantastic. He lost to the world champion on a split decision, while Paddy Barnes boxed out of his skin. We demand so much of our boxers.’
He said Walsh has a great relationship with the boxers, but stressed that his departure to American boxing had no effect on the team’s preparations.
‘We have pints and he is a really good friend of mine. Billy made his own choices but he wasn’t very present on the gym floor for a number of years now. He had to lead things from the office a lot. Looking in from the outside it looks like a big upheaval, but I’m with the set up eight years, John Conlon is here two years and Zaur is here 13 years. You’d miss Billy’s company and as a Wexford man and to bounce ideas off. Our structure in Ireland is very good and Billy has brought that to America.’
Bolger said he is confident Walsh will be a success in America.
‘Billy will give it 24 hours a day, seven days a week and he doesn’t have the distraction of trying to look after me any more. He is totally focussed.’