ST JOSEPH’S amateur boxing star Joe Cordina will be aiming to qualify for this summer’s Rio Olympics at the first opportunity after being selected for the European Continental Qualification Event in Turkey next month.

GB Boxing has selected 10 men and three women for the event in Samsun from April 7 to April 18.

The event is the first of four Olympic qualification events this year and has 36 places at Rio 2016 up-for-grabs.

Three places are available at each of the 10 men’s weights and two slots are on offer in each of three women’s weight categories.

Cordina, the 2015 European champion at lightweight (60kg), is the only Welsh fighter selected in the 13-person squad along with 12 English boxers.

Reigning Olympic flyweight champion Nicola Adams is also included, alongside 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallists, Joe Joyce, Antony Fowler and Savannah Marshall and 2015 European Championship silver medallists Muhammad Ali, Qais Ashfaq and Pat McCormack.

GB Boxing’s performance director Rob McCracken said: “The boxers’ preparations have been very good with a number of training camps and competitions over the last six months and we have selected those that the senior coaches and I feel are in the best form and are deserving of this opportunity to qualify for Rio.

“For some of the boxers that have missed out on selection for the first qualifier there is a big incentive to maintain their form and performance and try to get themselves picked for the other qualification events later this year.

“The Olympic qualification process for boxing is tough. There is no doubt that this will be a difficult tournament, as the competition is stiff and there are not too many qualification places available.

“But this is a talented group of boxers and I am confident that if they can maintain the standards of performance they have shown recently then they will give themselves every chance of securing a place at Rio.”

There will be three further Olympic qualification events for boxing following the European Continental Qualifier.

First up will be the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan in May.

And there will be two further opportunities for men to qualify for Rio 2016 – at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament, Baku, Azerbaijan, in June when 39 places will be available, and at the APB / WSB Olympic Qualification Tournament when 26 places at will be available.