Kellie Harrington is among the 65 Irish athletes selected for the European Games ©Getty Images

Ireland have named a squad of 65 athletes from nine sports to compete in the European Games in Minsk next month.

Team Ireland will field teams in archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoe sprint, cycling, gymnastics, judo and shooting.

There will be 13 Irish representatives in boxing, the sport which has provided the country with more Olympic medals than any other.

Women's world champion Kellie Harrington leads the four women, alongside Aoife O’Rourke, Grainne Walsh and Michaela Walsh.

The men selected are Anthony Browne, Regan Daly, Dean Gardiner, Brendan Irvine, James McGivern, Kieran Molloy, Michael Nevin, Kurt Walker and Joseph Ward.

The sport with the largest Irish contingent is cycling, with 16 athletes set to travel to Belarus.

Mark Downey, Conor Dunne, Robert Jon McCarthy, Ryan Mullen and Michael O’Loughlin compete in the men's road event, while Alice Sharpe represents the women.

Downey will also race in the men's track cycling events, alongside Felix English, JB Murphy, Marc Potts and Fintan Ryan, while Lydia Boylan, Mia Griffin, Lydia Gurley, Shannon McCurley, Orla Walsh and Robyn Stewart compete in the women's track events.

Ireland have also named 15 competitors for the athletics.

High jumper Nelvin Appiah-Konadu, sprinter Stephen Gaffney and hurdler Gerard O’Donnell are included, as are javelin thrower Grace Casey, hurdler Sarah Lavin, long jumper Sophie Meredith and sprinter Niamh Whelan.

Women's world champion Harrington is among 13 Irish representatives in the boxing ©Getty Images
Women's world champion Harrington is among 13 Irish representatives in the boxing ©Getty Images

Ireland will also enter the mixed gender 4x400m and pursuit relay races.

Brandon Arrey, Andrew Mellon, Ciara Deely and Sinead Denny race in the 4x400m, while Conall Kirk, Paul White, Victoria Harris and Amy O’Donoghue compete in the pursuit.

In the badminton, Rachael Darragh is the women's singles representative, while Nhat Nguyen competes in the men's event.

Chloe Magee and Samuel Magee play in the mixed doubles, while Joshua Magee and Paul Reynolds are the men's doubles entrants.

There are three Irish judoka taking part in Minsk – Nathon Burns, Ben Fletcher and Megan Fletcher.

Jenny Egan and Ronan Hughes are the Irish entrants for the canoe sprint, while Emma Slevin and Adam Steele compete in the all-round gymnastics.

Maeve Reidy is the sole Irish representative in the archery, while Aoife Gormally competes in the women’s shotgun trap.

Olympic Federation of Ireland Chef de Mission, Tricia Heberle said: “Minsk will provide an exciting opportunity for Team Ireland to come together in a multi-sport environment to compete against some of the best talent in Europe, providing a measure to gauge where they stand.

"As an athlete you don’t get many chances to compete for your country in multi-sport events so it will be a good learning experience for many of the team as we prepare for Tokyo 2020.”

The Olympic Federation of Ireland sponsor FBD will announce the flag bearer on June 7.

The European Games in Minsk will see more than 4,000 athletes from 50 countries compete across 200 events. 

Competition runs from June 21 to 30 and will feature 15 sports, eight of which are part of the Tokyo 2020 qualification process.