Boxing: Tough route to Athens

At the last Olympics three Irish and British boxers qualified from a total of 44 who attempted and the qualification process for the Athens Games in 2004 looks even more daunting.

The first chance for British and Irish boxers will be at the European Championships next February in Pula, Croatia, where any medal winner will be eligible to take part in the Olympics. However, British and Irish boxers have won fewer than 10 medals in more than 40 years of trying at the European Championships.

After the Europeans there are qualification tournaments in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and Warsaw, Poland, in March, and Buku, Azerbaijan, and Gothenburg, Sweden, in April.

Naseem Hamed could end his 13-month fight exile and meet Michael Brodie for the World Boxing Federation featherweight title at the MEN Arena in Manchester on 21 June. Hamed is 29 and it would be only his eighth fight in more than five years. If Hamed refuses to fight Brodie, his career is probably over.