Steven Donnelly Olympic update: All eyes on Russia

The Irish National Elite Championships are currently taking place in Dublin over the next few weekends, however there is also another tournament, 4,000km away from Dublin, that may have a big bearing on Olympic qualification.

The Russian National Championships take place this week in Samara and, if results go his way, they could lead to Ballymena welterweight Steven Donnelly securing a place at the Rio Olympics.

Donnelly, who is not participating in the Irish Elites due to injury, is believed to have a shot at making it to Brazil due to two of Russia’s boxers securing the Olympic qualification standard.

It is understood that, if Andrey Zamkovoy outperforms Radzhab Butaev in the ongoing Russian Championships, it will grant Donnelly qualification for Brazil by virtue of his fourth place finish in this season’s World Series of Boxing.

The tournament in Samara began on Saturday, and yesterday saw the opening round of action in the welterweight class (69kg). 29 boxers entered at the weight and, tantilisingly, Butaev and Zamkovoy are on opposite sides of the draw, meaning that a potential final showdown on Sunday (November 29th) is on the cards.

Both Zamkovoy and Butaev won their opening bouts yesterday (both by 3-0 unanimous decision), and are in Last 16 action tomorrow.

Should they continue to progress, quarter finals are on Thursday, semi finals on Friday, and finals day on Sunday.