The prize is an award for the person or persons considered the most outstanding Irish sports manager or coach of a particular year.

It comes after Walsh (pictured top, right) and Taylor helped Ireland to four medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Gold went to Pete Taylor's daughter Katie in the women's lightweight category, with the female edition of the sport appearing at the Olympics for the first time ever this summer.

Pete has masterminded his daughter's career from an early stage with the Olympic gold medal triumph coming after the 26-year-old from County Wicklow had already won four world titles and a five European crowns.


Walsh, the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) head coach, also helped oversee Katie's success before he took John Joe Nevin to silver in the men's bantamweight competition at the Games, as well as light flyweight Paddy Barnes and flyweight Michael Conlan to Olympic bronze medals.

"You come to these awards at the end of the year, you don't work for these awards," said Walsh, who picked up the prize for both trainers.

"The key thing that stuck in my mind when Des Cahill was reading out the former winners was there's no boxing there.

"It's great for boxing the recognition we're are getting."

The duo become just the second joint-recipients of the prestigious prize in its 31-year history.

The last time such a situation occurred was in 1990 when Irish Gaelic football coach Billy Morgan and hurling manager Michael O'Brien shared the prize.

Walsh and Taylor saw off the likes of Rory McIlroy's coach Michael Bannon, Leinster rugby coach Joe Schmidt and Cork football manager Conor Counihan to claim the award.

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