Grainne Walsh in red in action against Kaci Rock in blue
Grainne travels to Liverpool for worlds
THE World Boxing World Championships are being held in Liverpool this year with the tournament set to take place from September 4 to 14.
The Irish squad for the competition has been revealed with former Olympian Grainne Walsh boxing out of St Marys Tallaght representing her country in the 65kg weight class.
These World Championships are organised by the World Boxing governing body, formed only in 2023. Since forming the organisation has become the new International Governing Body for amateur boxing and will sanction the Olympics at the upcoming 2028 games held in Los Angeles.
World Boxing replaces the old IABA which was rife with allegations of corruption and integrity issues. These World Championships are the first to be sanctioned under the new governing body.
Grainne Walsh of St Marys in Tallaght put herself in pole position to represent Ireland at the tournament following an excellent performance at the National Elite Championships where she defeated Kaci Rock of Holy Trinity in the final.
Now raring to go and put herself back in contention to qualify for the 20280 Olympics she spoke on the preparations for the tournament.
“I think this is the time where the excitement starts to build, we’re all sharp and competing against people that we could potentially be fighting.
‘Everyday is a learning day and we’re just getting closer to that time. I think the energy feeds amongst the team and we’re all looking forward to getting started.”
The world championship will also mark the first time that men and women will be held at the same tournament rather split into two separate events. Grainne Walsh gave her thoughts.
“It’s brilliant, a lot of the time it’s completely separate, women’s europeans and women’s worlds.
‘For all of us to come together is brilliant. Having the experience last year at the qualifying tournaments which were male and female, the teams were quite small but to experience having the men and the women together was brilliant, everyone was singing off the same hymn sheet.”
Grainne is first set to get into the ring this Friday with the womens 65kg weight class scheduled to compete between 11am -3pm on that day.
