County Roscommon sisters part of historic boxing training camp in China

Roscommon sisters Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke are part of a historic boxing training camp in China.

The Tarmon siblings from Castlerea Boxing Club are members of the Team Ireland women's team which travelled to China yesterday, Tuesday. The team will take part in an unprecedented training camp as part of preparations for the 2025 Women’s World Championships in Serbia next month.

This is the first time a high performance team has travelled to China for a camp. The boxers will train with China’s first team at the Chinese National Olympic Sport Centre in the Chaoyang District of Beijing.

This was the venue for soccer, track and selected Modern Pentathlon events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The team includes European U-23 silver medalist, Carleigh Irving; Paris Olympians Daina Moohouse, Jenny Lehane, Michaela Walsh, Gráinne Walsh and Aoife O’Rourke; and 2022 World Champion and 2024 European U-23 champion, Lisa O’Rourke.

Taking place from February 11th to 22nd, the camp will include high-level sparring, and co-training with the China team, and builds on preparations which have already included a domestic sparring camp with France in December.

Team Ireland will be led by high performance coach, Damian Kennedy. Damian took the lead coach role during the second Olympic World Qualifier in Bangkok, where four boxers qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

High performance Head Coach, Zauri Antia said: “This is a superb and exciting opportunity for two of the best women’s teams in the world to train together and learn from one another as part of federation’s preparation for the Women’s World Championships. The development potential of this training camp is significant for each boxer and for the squad as a whole.”