Toome’s Damian Kennedy has been appointed interim High Performance head coach by the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) following the retirement of Zauri Antia.
Kennedy has been involved in coaching for three decades, assisting Antia at the 2024 Paris Olympics after assuming the role of head coach for the second Olympic Qualifier in Bangkok when four boxers sealed their place at the Games.
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The County Antrim man was Northern Ireland head coach at the 2022 Commonwealth Games when the team returned with five gold medals, plus one silver and one bronze.
Throughout his career, he has held a number of coaching roles within the IABA and was honoured by Sport NI in 2023 through its Sportmaker Awards, while named a ‘Game Changer’ by the UK National Lottery Good Causes in 2024 as having made a pivotal contribution to boxing and to his community.
“It’s an honour to lead the National programme on an interim basis, to build on the legacy of boxing technical excellence learned from and with Zauri,” Kennedy said.
“He and I worked hand-in-glove to prepare boxers for the highest levels of competition across many years, ably assisted by High Performance coaches in Dublin and in Ulster.
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“There’s an exciting and challenging competition period just around the corner, and I look forward to further supporting IABA boxers in achieving their goals.”
The IABA will begin a recruitment process to appoint the permanent successor to Antia in 2026 with High Performance director, Jon Mackey saying Kennedy is “ideally placed” to take the lead until the new head coach is confirmed.
“Damian has already brought a wealth of boxing technical skills to High Performance over the last four years, and has a proven track record of achievement in terms of his contribution to podium finishes, athlete development and talent ID,” he said.
“His athlete-first instincts, coupled with his innate mentorship skills and strategic planning abilities mean he is ideally placed to lead on boxer development and support during the early stages of our first full year of World Boxing competition.”