Beijing Bound Egan Wants Olympic Gold...

Irish pugilist Kenneth Egan has been captain of the Irish boxing team and National Senior light-heavy champ for nearly a decade now... Stop the press - he's only just gone booked his place for the Beijing Olympic finals... Well, we told you he would about 2 years ago. But did you listen?

Kenneth Egan

Here at ShowBiz Ireland we can spot talent from a mile away, and we're rarely wrong in our star predictions. But we don't just limit ourselves to actors, singers, models and wannabes. Oh no. We also have a huge interest in emerging Irish sports stars that can potentially set the world on fire...

Kenneth Egan

We've had our eye on handsome Irish boxing champion Kenneth Egan for a few years after witnessing him demolishing everyone in his path for nearly a decade. We think he holds the record with no less than 8 Irish Senior titles to his name. Nay bad eh? And with all his success he’s no big-head. No Ego Egan, we call him!

Kenneth Egan

The last time we spoke to Kenneth, and possibly every other time, his focus has always been the Olympic games in Beijing. His only weakness may have been that he wanted it too much, but that's all academic now... Yesterday he achieved his dream in the Athens qualifiers and along with Darren Sutherland & John Joe Joyce; he has secured his place in the Olympic Games 2008. Go wan the lads!

Kenneth Egan

Fighting out of Neilstown, Kenneth has avoided the temptation to turn pro like his fellow Irish boxers Any Lee, John Duddy and Matthew Macklin. Remaining a purest to the amateur boxing style, Egan has remained staunch in his ambition for Olympic glory. Determination like this is rare these days, and should be applauded.

Kenneth Egan, Sheamus O'Shaunessy

We hooked up with Kenneth Egan in the National Stadium gym back in 2006 when he was putting a then unknown wrestler called Sheamus O'Shaunessy through his paces to help make the enormous 20 Stone grappler lighter on his toes...

Sheamus O'Shaunessy, Kenneth Egan

And just in case you haven't been keeping up with things, Sheamus has also achieved his dream and landed a 3 year contract with the WWE and is currently 'in development' in Tampa, Florida. Think we predicted that one too... Ahem.

Sheamus O'Shaunessy, Kenneth Egan

With boxing the only real discipline where the Irish historically achieve success in the Olympics, we're really hoping Kenneth and his young boxing team bring home the bacon for Ireland. Although they have just qualified, the real work starts now - there's no time to celebrate for our lads. They can do that when they bring home a bag of medals. Knock 'em out boys!