April Test Issue 2 April-May 2013 | Page 8

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW The last two Olympics, 2008 and 2012, bringing back seven medals, the interest is there for two weeks and that’s not the boxers fault or the coaches’ fault. Take the Donegal Football Team who are a great team, they received RTE Sports Team of the Year but they represent their county, the boxers should have won it, if not the boxers, it should have been the Para Olympians, because we are representing our country, four and half million people and we are the best in the country, chosen to represent our country against the rest of the world. The problem is, as I said is its not been sold right. We need to make it more attractive, more Home Internationals against the likes of the Cubans, the Americans, the Russians, and these should be happening every few months but its not been done at the moment. I think it needs to change, the whole set up, we have a great performance in place, a lot of people were not very happy with it but he continued with it. I jumped on the band wagon and I’m glad I did, it got me to an Olympic final. Then to bring Zuar in from Georgia and to have a strength and condition coach, John Cleary, and all these factors improved me as an athlete and as a boxer. It’s definitely the way forward, the proof is in the pudding, we have won over a hundred medals at all ages, we won seven Olympic medals at the last two Olympics. We hadn’t won one since 1992 with Michael Carruth , things are working now but we need to keep improving, keep going to top countries and be looking to improve. Coaching is very important in this country, it is important that we start in the clubs. There should be seminars around the country and showing coaches what training is happening in the High Performance, so when the young boxers come to the High Performance Programme they know what the set up of the training drills are. There needs to be a continuous conveyer belt of top coaching seminars all over this country. PROFILE REAL NAME NICKNAME 6ft 2in (1.88m) NATIONALITY Irish BORN January 7th, 1982, Clondalkin, Dublin, Ireland. STANCE 8 Light-Heavyweight HEIGHT Ken: The only problem with amateur boxing in this country is it’s not recognised. It’s actually a disgrace. It’s not sold right, published or advertised correctly because it’s a great sport that shows its face every four years at the Olympic Games. We are the only sport that does well, especially of late. Kenny RATED AT KO: Boxing is Ireland’s Number 1 sport in regards to winning medals worldwide, do you think the sport gets the recognition it deserves? Kenneth Egan Southpaw MONTHLY