Egan to get 'back to basics'

Irish amateur captain Ken Egan’s recent high-profile disappearing act has culminated with the Olympic silver medallist withdrawing from the Bernard Dunne under card in Dublin later this month and issuing public apology for his absence from Ireland’s international bout with the US at the National Stadium last Friday.

It has since emerged he travelled to New York on the spur of the moment, having lost his focus on the amateur game after his heroic homecoming from China.

This afternoon, he admitted he has been distracted by the trappings of fame and celebrity and apologised for the part he played in the intense media scrutiny he had been under lately.

On arriving home this morning, the Neilstown fighter was met by ‘mentor’ and friend Gary Keegan of the Institute of Sport. He immediately ruled himself out of Peters’s promotion and set about explaining himself.

A statement, released by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association this afternoon, read: “Kenny wishes to express his sincerest apologies to everyone and in particular all those people that have been very supportive of him both through his journey to the Olympic Final in Beijing and after the games.

He would also like to apologise to his mother and family for all the media attention that his success has brought to their doors.

“Kenny knows he has largely fed the media commentary and wishes to hold his hands up and again apologise to all involved. He has found dealing with the success and the new found fame it brings very challenging and he says himself that he hasn’t handled it appropriately and put himself out there in celebrity world and got caught up in it.”

“He would like to apologise to his team mates, coaches and support staff in the high performance programme and to the president Mr Dominic O’Rourke and the IABA for letting them down by not turning up to compete in the recent international against America.

“Kenny while trying to please everybody left himself open to all sorts of request which ultimately left him in a position where he couldn’t meet his commitments.”

Egan had been due to feature on the under card of Dunne’s world title fight at the O2 on March 21st with Xiaoping Zhang, the Chinese fighter who beat him to the gold medal in Beijing, being lined up as an opponent.

“He has made a decision not to box on the Bernard Dunne world title fight because he is not in condition to compete at this point. Kenny wanted to apologise to Brian Peters for any inconvenience this will cause and wishes Bernard the very best in his title fight.”

The statement concluded by saying Egan was now purely focused on getting “back to basics”.

Egan is funded by the Irish Sports Council’s high performance programme.

A spokesman for the council insisted today the boxer’s “welfare is the priority” and added there was no suggestion that his funding was under threat.