Brendan Irvine went to the Rio Olympics as the baby of the team, but gets ready to lead Ireland’s boxers into battle in Tokyo

HE was the baby of the Irish team at the Rio Olympics, but now Brendan Irvine heads into the rescheduled Tokyo Games five years later as the experienced leader of the group.

The 25-year-old joins a very select band as a two-time Olympian and with such prestige comes the team captaincy, an honour the Glencolin man admits was something of a shock given his rocky road to the Games.

Following a silver medal performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, Irvine was forced into a long spell out of the ring with a complicated wrist injury that required surgery. Having battled his way back to fitness, he then suffered a broken foot in a freak accident when training for the 2019 European Games in Minsk.

After almost a year out, the St Paul’s ABC man wasn’t even sure whether he would be selected for the Irish team that would head to London in March 2020 for the Olympic Qualifier, but selected he was and as it transpired, he needed to only win his opening bout against Hungary’s Istvan Szaka to secure one of the eight European places available for Tokyo in the flyweight category.

It was March 16 and with the rapidly changing situation over Covid-19, world began to filter through that the qualifying event was to be scrapped at the end of that day’s session, but with the Games within touching distance, Irvine produced a vintage performance to win in style and ensure his ticket was stamped.

It has been a much different build-up than what he experienced prior to Rio when he defeated Daniel Asenov in what was a final chance to reach the Games just months before the opening ceremony.

“It’s completely different, a complete rollercoaster, especially for myself with injuries various setbacks,” he reflects.

“A couple of months before qualifying, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be picked to go because I was only back on my feet from breaking part of my foot.

“To be picked to go, never mind being named team captain, well I couldn’t believe it so I just tried to grab the opportunity with both hands.

“I can’t even describe how it feels. To represent your country is a great honour, but to be the team captain and leading this team in Tokyo is something I’ll always be very proud of.”

Going into his first Olympics in 2016, Irvine was part of a seven-strong team laden with household names such as Michael Conlan, Paddy Barnes and Katie Taylor that was tipped to return with a number of medals, but the dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

Michael O’Reilly failed a drugs test on the eve of the Games, with a weight-drained Barnes crashing out in his opening bout. Some shocking scoring would end the hopes of Conlan and Taylor, whilst Joe Ward would lose out after harshly being docked points in his opener.

Irvine lost his opening bout to eventual gold medal winner, Shakhobidin Zoirov, with the Uzbek proving too much that afternoon for the West Belfast man who couldn’t have been handed a tougher draw on such a huge stage.

Exiting the ring, there were no guarantees he would be back on that stage but here he is, leading a seven-strong Irish team of which he is the sole survivor from Rio.

“I was only 20 at the time, so to be honest I didn’t know what was going through my head,” he recalls.

“Getting out of the ring I knew that fella was going to win a medal - I didn’t know it was going to be gold. It’s the luck of the draw, but you’ve to create your own luck as well.

“The feelings then are a lot different to what they are now. I’m a lot more mature and know what to expect.

“It’s a completely different team. I’m the last man standing from Rio but you look at the performances there in Paris, or even London last year, and the team is flying.

“The confidence is so high as everyone is in a good place. Everybody is just trying to stay positive and stay focussed on the Games.”

Brendan Irvine lost out to eventual gold medal winner Shakhobidin Zoirov in his opening bout at the 2016 Rio Games
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Brendan Irvine lost out to eventual gold medal winner Shakhobidin Zoirov in his opening bout at the 2016 Rio Games

Zoirov is back to defend his title having had a brief flirtation with professional boxing, but it is a stacked flyweight division in which Irvine will hope to negotiate in order to reach the podium.

Having qualified last March, unlike his Irish team-mates, the pressure was off when he returned to the European Qualifier tournament in Paris for a quarter-final that didn’t mean a lot in the grander scheme of things.

He may have lost out to Spain’s Gabriel Escobar in that bout, but was relatively happy with how he performed although admits a little more competitive action wouldn’t have done any harm with the Olympics just around the corner.

“It was completely different for me,” he agreed.

“I was very relaxed about the whole situation, probably too relaxed, but what can you do? The main task was to qualify and I did that last year. With Covid coming on, you couldn’t think that this or that was happening as nothing was set in stone. It was just about trying to make do with what we had.

“I lost but I was happy with my performance as I didn’t perform badly. I think I was caught with two clean shots so there was nothing to be too annoyed about.”

Uncertainty and disruption has not only dogged the qualification process and preparation for the Games that were due to take place last year, but also the build-up to this month with reports from Japan suggesting that public opinion may sway the organisers into another delay, or indeed, cancellation.

Despite a loss to Spain’s Gabriel Escobar in Paris last month having already qualified, Irvine believes he is in the right place heading into his second Olympic Games
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Despite a loss to Spain’s Gabriel Escobar in Paris last month having already qualified, Irvine believes he is in the right place heading into his second Olympic Games

The latter was never really an option for an event of such magnitude, especially in the wake of soccer’s European Championships that took place across the continent.

Still, it will be a rather different experience with crowds limited and family members unable to make the journey out to the Land of the Rising Sun, but that could also be a blessing.

For Irvine, this is all about business and having gone from youngster to experienced head over the past five years, he is determined to lead the team to what all hope is a hugely successful couple of weeks.

“I was told last year that the Games were definitely going ahead, but then you have people coming up and saying that they’ve seen something on the news that it isn’t happening,” he said of the recent build-up.

“Look, they are happening as there’s too much money involved.

“There’s been football on TV every night of the week (European Championships) and the Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world, so how could they not be happening? That’s the way I’ve always looked at it.

“I was talking to somebody who asked if I was annoyed that my family can’t go, but I said no because, if anything, that creates more pressure.

“Now I can just zone in on what the task is and try to lead by example as that’s the ultimate goal.”