TEAM IRELAND WILL send 65 athletes to Minsk for next month’s European Games. 

In its second edition, following on from the inaugural event in Baku four years ago, the competitions run from 21-30 June and feature 15 sports, eight of which are part of the qualification process for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. 

The Belarusian capital will host more than 4,000 athletes from 50 nations across 300 events in total. 

Ireland is set to field teams in nine sports — archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoe sprint, cycling, gymnastics, judo and shooting. 

Among those involved are world boxing champion Kellie Harrington, and European bronze medallists Chloe and Sam Magee, who take part in the badminton mixed doubles.

“Minsk will provide an exciting opportunity for Team Ireland to come together in a multi-sport environment to compete against some of the best talent in Europe, providing a measure to gauge where they stand,” said Olympic Federation of Ireland Chef de Mission Tricia Heberle.

As an athlete you don’t get many chances to compete for your country in multi-sport events so it will be a good learning experience for many of the team as we prepare for Tokyo 2020.”

Peter Sherrard, Olympic Federation of Ireland CEO added: “With just over three weeks to go, anticipation among the team and support staff is building after months of preparation, investment and planning. I would like to thank all of the OFI staff, led by our Chef de Mission, Tricia Heberle, who have worked so hard in partnership with the Team Managers and Performance Directors from our National Governing Bodies to prepare.

“The partnership approach has been enhanced thanks to the performance support agreement for the Games with Sport Ireland Institute, which will help us to deliver for the athletes and their performances.”

Team Ireland

Archery (1)

Maeve Reidy (Recurve)

Athletics (15)

Nelvin Appiah-Konadu (High Jump)

Brandon Arrey (4 x 400m)

Stephen Gaffney (100m)

Conall Kirk (Pursuit)

Andrew Mellon (4 x 400m)

Gerard O’Donnell (110m H)

Paul White (Pursuit)

Grace Casey (Javelin)

Ciara Deely (4 x 400m)

Sinead Denny (4 x 400m)

Victoria Harris (Pursuit Race)

Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles)

Sophie Meredith (Long Jump)

Amy O’Donoghue (Pursuit Race)

Niamh Whelan (100m)

Reserves (6): Paul Byrne, Luke Lennon-Ford, Kelly McGrory, Catherine McManus, Lily-Ann O’Hora, Moromoluwa Olusa

Badminton (6)

Singles (2)

Rachael Darragh (Singles)

Nhat Nguyen (Singles)

Doubles (4)

Chloe Magee (Mixed Doubles), & Samuel Magee (Mixed Doubles)

Joshua Magee (Men’s Doubles) & Paul Reynolds (Men’s Doubles)

Boxing (13)

Anthony Browne (Men’s Heavy -91kg)

Regan Daly (Men’s Light Fly -49kg)

Dean Gardiner (Men’s Super Heavy +91kg)

Brendan Irvine (Men’s Fly -52kg)

James McGivern (Men’s Light Welter -69kg)

Kieran Molloy (Men’s Welter -69kg)

Michael Nevin (Men’s Middle -75kg)

Kurt Walker (Men’s Bantam -56kg)

Joseph Ward (Men’s Light Heavy -81kg)

Kellie Harrington (Women’s Light -60kg)

Aoife O’Rourke (Women’s Middle -75kg)

Grainne Walsh (Women’s Welter -69kg)

Michaela Walsh (Women’s Feather -57kg)

Canoe Sprint (2)

Jenny Egan (Women’s K1 200, 500, 5000)

Ronan Hughes (Men’s K1 200, 500, 5000)

Cycling (16)

Road (6)

Mark Downey

Conor Dunne

Robert Jon McCarthy

Ryan Mullen

Michael O’Loughlin

Alice Sharpe

Track (11)

Mark Downey

Felix English,

JB Murphy

Marc Potts

Fintan Ryan

Lydia Boylan

Mia Griffin

Lydia Gurley

Shannon McCurley

Robyn Stewart

Orla Walsh

Gymnastics (2)

Emma Slevin (Women’s All-Around)

Adam Steele (Men’s All-Around)

Judo (3)

Nathon Burns (Men’s Half-light weight -66kg)

Ben Fletcher (Men’s Half-heavy weight -100kg)

Megan Fletcher (Women’s Middle weight -70kg)

Shooting (1)

Aoife Gormally (Women’s Shotgun Trap)

Gavan Casey is joined by Murray Kinsella and Sean Farrell for a review of the 2018/19 season, and cast an eye forward to next year and the Rugby World Cup in Japan.:

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