(JAN 8) Great news for Irish boxing, indeed other sports too, in advance of the forthcoming Olympic Games and the World and European Championships as Minister Paschal Donohoe held a media briefing Thursday.

For many years now there has been a demand from Ireland’s leading boxers and many coaches for a new ‘State of the Art’ HP Unit to replace the existing facilities at the National Stadium in Dublin. Their wish finally came true and they will be able to utilise the centre from early this year.

“Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, TD, facilitated a media briefing of the new €4million High Performance Training Centre at the Irish Institute of Sport, Dublin. This gave members of the media an insight into the progress that has been made on the Centre and the role it is playing in meeting the needs of Irish High Performance athletes.

The Centre, based on the National Sport Campus, will provide a World Class Training and Support Environment where Irish high performance athletes, coaches and support staff train, meet and exchange expertise, to realise their potential.

Minister Donohoe said: ‘The High Performance Training Centre is a very important development for Irish sport and for our High Performance athletes, providing them with world-class training facilities here at home. The Government’s investment in this project, and in the National Sports Campus as a whole, is recognition of the importance of having appropriate facilities and supports in place to help our sportsmen and women to reach their full potential’.

The Training Centre provides support for Ireland’s athletes in elite physical conditioning, testing, rehabilitation, nutrition, physiology, medicine, precision analysis, education, life-skills. The Centre features a 4 lane indoor 130m track with performance analysis equipment, integrated long jump and a fully equipped world class physical conditioning area to ensure athletes and coaches are given every support needed to impact performance on the world stage.

Speaking at the event, Chair of Sport Ireland, Kieran Mulvey commented: ‘Our mission is to support Irish Sports to reach world podiums by ensuring excellence in the high performance system and delivering world class services. Our new High Performance Centre will provide a world class environment where our elite athletes can prepare at home to realise their performance potential on the world stage”.

The Centre boasts an integrated medicine and rehab area, athletes' kitchen with nutrition demonstration and education area and social ecology space where athletes and coaches can rest from training, catch up on study and meet peers.

The Centre also features a new changing village with recovery suite, integrating existing areas of the Institute that deliver high performance Physiology and Life-skills support services.

Chief Executive of Sport Ireland, John Treacy explained: ‘I am delighted to see the new High Performance Training Centre come on stream as we look towards Rio and beyond. As part of the investment, we consulted intensively with athletes, coaches, performance directors and specialists across the team to consider design, layout and equipment based on our sports current needs and also to ensure future proofing this support environment’.

In addition to the supporting high performance athletes, coaches and support staff, the facility will also support the Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s High Performance programme. With a fully specced out boxing gym, the facility will include 4 training rings and 1 full size competition ring, analysis equipment and coaches offices and will be fully functioning in early 2016.

WBAN understands that the new facility which was completed in September includes Sauna/Steam room and Ice Room.

The construction price of the Centre was €3.98m with an additional €721,000 investment in equipment, though it must be stressed that this is not solely for the boxers though it will greatly assist their chances of medalling at top international events.