The tremendous success of Wicklow duo Ross Hickey and Bray based Adam Nolan in the National Elite Boxing Championships last weekend leaves the Garden County with three Wicklow based boxers are in the frame to secure Olympic qualification for the London games in August.

Grangecon club's Hickey and Bray club's Nolan head to Turkey in April in their bid, as national champions, to secure Olympic qualification, while Bray's Katie Taylor will be off to Beijing in May to nail down her ticket to London.

All three boxers were crowned as elite national champions in the national stadium in Dublin at the weekend though Katie Taylor did not have to throw a punch in anger as the several times European and world championship was left without an opponent in the finals.

For Ross Hickey, who lives just on Kildare side of West Wicklow's border, the chance to secure a place on Ireland's Olympic boxing team is fitting compensation for the heartbreak he suffered last September by being cruelly denied a tilt at a world title by a blatantly wrong decision in a box off with Mayo's Ray Moylette from Westport.

As now Hickey was the reigning champion at light welter weight in 2011 but because of his army commitments he was unable to take part in the European championships last year. His place was taken by Moylette who won the gold.

So when it came picking an Irish team for the world championships, it was decided that the best way to decide whether it should be Ross Hickey or Moylette was to decide it by way of a box off between them.

Then Hickey was left gutted when Moylette got the verdict at the end of a box-off contest that practically everyone in the stadium knew was won by the Grangecon man. Indeed when the scores of the judges were aggregated, Hickey was ahead by 80 to 77, but yet inexplicably Moylette got the nod for the Worlds by a 15-13 margin.

Now less than six months later Ross Hickey has bounced back to retain his 64k light welter-weight title by decisively beating a game Bray opponent Stephen Coughlan in the final on Friday by 21 points to 5. Moylette did not get past the semi-final stages this time. In first rounds boxers usually sized each other up, and here Coughlan gave as good as he got. He trailed Hickey by a single point 3 to 4 at the end of the first round.

Southpaw Ross Hickey cut loose for the remaining two rounds, scoring constantly and repeatedly with his jab and left cross to move ahead by 11 points to 3 at the end of the second round and them wrap up the title in the third by 21 points to 5.

Earlier Hickey had a tough contest against Niall Murray from Gorey, winning by a narrow 3 points margin 15-12 and before that is disposed of Phil Sutcliffe from Crumlin who had been his opponent in the final in 2011.

Hickey's coach Seamus Byrne said that Ross was on top of the world after last Friday national final win. He is thrilled to have retained his title and is now looking forward to having a go at fulfilling his dream of making the Olympics.

Before heading to the Olympic qualifiers on the shores of Dead Sea in Turkey in April,

Ross Hickey will joined his fellow elite boxers at training camps in the Curragh and Germany to hone their boxing skills for the big tests up ahead.

Adam Nolan, formerly of the Ballagh, now boxing out of the Bray Club, mixed it with the very best before going on to score a superb victory over John Joe Joyce to retain his National Senior Welterweight title at the National Stadium, Dublin, on Friday night last.

Nolan was never going to blow his chance as he built up a 7-4 first round lead, but still he had to prove his worth as champion, when Joyce who missed out on an Olympic medal by just a single point, stormed back in the second round, leaving the title up for grabs in the third and final round, as the Bray based Garda now had his lead reduced to 12-10 going into that nail biting final three minutes.

It was hyped up as one of the finals of the night and it certainly lived up to expectations. Both fighters went at it in the final round. Great punches, counter punches, and an amazingly tense final minute, saw both boxers strive for the scoring punches, but Nolan was intent on protecting his title, as he stormed through those final seconds to eventually get his hands on a second successive senior title with a 17-15 victory.

Nolan's class was as evident as ever as he timed his shots impeccably, forcing the fight on Joyce, which few had expected, for he is renowned to let his footwork and punching tally up the points, but on this occasion he caught the former champion by surprise as he forced the fight throughout.

Nolan could have been more ahead after the first round as he dominated Joyce who had to absorb a flurry of punches as he got through with some crisp shots. Joyce, showed all his experience getting back in the second round with a winning chance, but Nolan was at his ruthless best in the final round, as he gradually wore down the Joyce challenge, countering with excellent and accurate punches of his own.

It was a stunning victory for Nolan and a marvelous achievement to put back-to-back titles, having won the senior title for the very first time last year. He managed to put behind some injury concerns early in the season, for he had to sparkle to progress through this weight, which was one of the toughest in the championships. He defeated underage starlet Michael O'reilly in the quarter-final, before a stunning semi-final performance led to him outboxing William Mcloughlin, a World Junior medalist, in the semi-final.

The final scoreline of 17-15 may have been somewhat flattering to Joyce but there can be no argument as to who was the better fighter on the night. It was an elated Nolan who spoke of his success. 'It was marvelous achievement to win the title for the first time last year, but it's a dream come through to retain the title. I went in there with the right tactics, used them well, and I got the result.

'This was a victory for my grandparents, Paddy, aged 90, and Mai Devereux in Castlebridge. I would also pay a special tribute to my trainer Pete Taylor who was assisted in the corner by my brother, Darren. I also would like to thank all my colleagues in Bray Garda Station for their help and encouragement'

Adams will now join the Irish squad for training in the Curragh this month, before another training camp in Germany in early March. Later that month he will go on to the Ukraine and then on to Turkey in April for the Olympic Qualifiers.

- MARK KENNEDY AND BRENDAN FURLONG