Olympics:Joe Ward has lost his 11th hour appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a place at the London Games. The Irish light-heavyweight champion, who was beaten in controversial circumstances in the Olympic qualifiers, had his case heard at an ad hoc sitting of CAS in London last night.
The 19-year-old had been hoping to earn a last-ditch wildcard place but CAS ruled against him when the verdict was delivered this evening. The CAS has yet to publish the full verdict.
Ward was beaten 18-15 by Turkey’s Bahram Muzaffer in the Olympic qualification tournament in Trabzon in April, a decision which prompted the Irish boxing delegation immediately appealed the decision, unsuccessfully.
A wildcard possibility subsequently arose. But international body AIBA explained in an e-mail that Ward would not be chosen for London. It stated: “We regrettably found out that your boxer [Ward] does not meet the qualification to be the next-best boxer in your continent.”
Ward, the European light-heavyweight champion, at that time was ranked five in the world by AIBA. In the July world rankings he has risen one place to fourth. Montenegrin boxer Bosco Draskovic, who received the wildcard nomination, was ranked 25 places below the Irishman at the time but is now not listed in the official list of the top 36 boxers.
Show jumper Denis Lynch, meanwhile, will take his case to the CAS after his removal from the Irish team earlier this month. Lynch was replaced by Cian O’Connor following the disqualification of his Nations’ Cup mount Lantinus at a five-star show in Aachen.
The horse had tested positive for hypersensitivity of his legs.
Lynch stressed had stressed both his innocence and his support for the measures regarding hypersensitivity implemented by the FEI in a statement released at the time. “At no stage, was there any inference that the hypersensitivity was anything other than natural occurring,” he explained.
“I feel this is very important to clarify and I would also like to state for the record that I fully support all measures regarding hypersensitivity implemented by the FEI ”.