Michael Conlan notified his fans on Twitter, that the seven members of the Irish Olympic boxing team that left for Rio yesterday, arrived today “safe and sound.”
Well almost! The full story surrounding his car is yet to be disclosed, seen in the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/mickconlan11/status/755810354018549760
The Irish male Olympic squad left for Rio on July 19th and arrived the following day after a long flight from home. They go straight into a ten-day training camp, before entering the Olympic Village on July 29th.
Boxing begins on August 6th at the 9,000 Pavilion 6 venue.
Defending lightweight champion Katie Taylor joins the squad on August 2.
The maximum number of boxers any nation can qualify for the Olympics is 13, 10 men and 3 women.
Ireland managed to take 8 of those available places, setting a new Irish record since the qualification system was introduced for Barcelona 1992.
Ireland’s Olympic boxing team manager Joe Hennigan believes all 8 members of team Ireland are capable of taking home a medal.
“All preparations have gone very well and the team are more than ready” said Hennigan. “I think this is a great team of eight boxers. It’s a team packed with international experience and every one of them is capable of bringing home a medal.”
Irish boxers qualified
Women
60kg (Lightweight) – Katie Taylor (Bray)
Men
49kg (Light-flyweight) – Paddy Barnes (Holy Family)
52kg (Flyweight) – Brendan Irvine (St Paul’s)
56kg (Bantamweight) – Michael Conlan (Clonard)
60kg (Lightweight) – David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s Athy & AIBA Pro Boxing)
64kg (Light-welterweight)
69kg (Welterweight) – Steven Donnelly (All Saints)
75kg (Middleweight) – Michael O’Reilly (Portlaoise)
81kg (Light-heavyweight) – Joe Ward (Moate & AIBA Pro Boxing)
Team Manager:
Joe Hennigan
Coaches:
Zaur Antia, Eddie Bolger, John Conlan
Photo credit/Getty/Brendan Moran
