PATRICIA HEBERLE has defended the decision to choose Paris-bound Gráinne Walsh over Amy Broadhurst for the Olympic qualifiers.
Broadhurst, 27, was not given a chance to take part in a box-off for a place on the Ireland team in Thailand in May/June, with Walsh selected to fight at 66kg instead.
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But the call by IABA high-performance director Heberle proved a shrewd one.
Dundalk boxer Broadhurst switched to Team GB.
She had won Commonwealth gold for Northern Ireland in 2022, the same year she claimed world and European gold for Ireland.
Broadhurst had previously contemplated the switch after Kellie Harrington was chosen at her preferred 60kg weight for the Tokyo Olympics when she won gold.
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This prompted Broadhurst to move up to super lightweight but it is not an Olympic weight, leading her to move up a second time.
But Walsh was preferred at welterweight and, with Broadhurst not prepared to hang around for the 2028 Games, she opted to try her luck at lightweight with Britain instead.
However, her dreams were dashed by defeat in the quarter-finals in Bangkok on May 31, while Walsh booked her ticket to the Olympics three days later.
And Heberle argued that the strength in depth at welterweight ultimately went against Broadhurst.
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The former Olympic hockey player said: “The most important thing was we started talking to the athletes in November — ‘This is the Olympic selection policy, these are the milestone dates, these are the things we consider when we select’.
“There was a lot of emphasis on what they are doing every single day from professionalism, commitment to training, to whether they are progressing in strength and conditioning, whether they are progressing technically and tactically. Some athletes get it and some struggle. With Amy, we had three high-quality boxers at that weight.
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“In fact, we had four. We had Tina Desmond the year before.
“We had Gráinne, who we knew had been impacted by injuries and Gráinne was very close to getting selected for the European Games last year.
“We had Amy, who had a breakout 2022 and people couldn’t get anywhere near her.
“We had Lisa O’Rourke, who already won a world title at 70kg and is part of the future.”
The Australia native admitted Broadhurst’s switch made an impact behind the scenes.
However, she insisted there was no hesitation in choosing Walsh, despite her controversial loss at the qualifiers in Italy in March.
She added: “It was always going to be difficult.
“There was some impact when we announced the selections because if you are getting a lot of criticism from outside and social media is going mad and a lot of it was very personal, you can’t just ignore it.
“The choice was that we were absolutely confident that for that first evening in Milan, that Gráinne was the number one and when we came back from Milan and we had to look at who were our number ones for Bangkok. Again, she had presented a compelling case.
“She was the number one, that created the whole roll-on effect with Amy making her choices.
“We worked with the Olympic Federation because it was always going to be about them and the British Olympic Association.
“We worked with GB Boxing, tried to be professional and try to support the fact that she made a decision.
“Do you get distracted by that or do you actually focus on the athletes you need to work with and were looking to qualify? That was the choice we made.”
Ireland will be sending a record-equalling ten boxers to Paris.
Four of those — Gráinne Walsh, Aidan Walsh, Jennifer Lehane and Daina Moorehouse — only gained qualification this month.
Heberle said: “There was all the noise coming into Bangkok with the Amy Broadhurst thing.
“The best way to quieten things is to perform well, to end up with another four qualifications and have the biggest team in modern times.”
