BOXING AIBA OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS:AT THE risk of causing moan fatigue, Paddy Barnes is spitting nails in Trabzon.
The Irish light flyweight bronze medallist from Beijing held his hand up in mock gesture in the centre of the ring in Hayri Gur Sports Hall as the referee awarded yesterday’s semi-final decision to Turkey’s Ferhat Pehlivan, the score 21-14.
The gesture he made walking back to the changing rooms can stay in the Arena and perhaps summed up the nine minutes better than words but once again the sympathy lay with Ireland’s 49 kg champion after a bemusing sequence of scoring all fell with Turkish opponent Pehlivan.
Part of Barnes’s charm is that he rarely holds back to find the diplomatic phrase and if Billy Walsh, the Irish team coach, had tuned himself to philosophical mode well, the little Belfast scrapper hadn’t.
Barnes may have qualified for London 2012 in his last fight here and was secure with having achieved what he had travelled and trained for, but he didn’t take kindly to losing to what many saw as an unfathomable sequence of scoring.
To him there was nothing mysterious about it. After a few choice words for the judges which are unprintable due to their grossly defamatory nature, Barnes breezily continued.
“I wasn’t happy at all with the decision. I hammered him like. It wasn’t even as if it was close,” he said. “I hammered him. His ma and da knew I won that fight so they did. The whole crowd knew I won it. What do you do?”
Barnes caught Pehlivan with a big right during the third round and mock waved his glove. But the light flyweight was on a roll.
“I caught him with that many that I don’t know what one you’re talking about,” he added.
“I held him up so I did. I held him up so I could bother him even more.”
Behind the humour was annoyance and frustration. Barnes has had a difficult year and by his own high standards was climbing back to where he belongs, which is in the medal zone of major championships. A win would have put him in the final here.
Instead he may wish to compare notes with Joe Ward about whom the Irish Amateur Boxing Association has officially written a letter to the International federation. They have pointed out that, ranked at three in the world, Ward will be the highest rated boxer not to appear at the Olympic Games and asked if there were any other ways that could be used to allow him take a place in London 2012.
“Everybody, every country can see what’s happening out here. England suffered a bit today as well and their guy did not qualify,” said Irish coach Walsh.
“But we were in the happy position that we had qualified before we went into this fight.
“We always knew it was going to be difficult. We set out a target coming here and we have exceeded it already. We will get our opportunity in London to turn it around. At this stage, even though you are happy to have qualified, you still want to go to the final. Paddy wants to win gold medals.
“I said six months ago that anyone who meets a Turk in Turkey was going to find it difficult. We had one early on they took Joe out of the equation and that guy is now in the final. Every time a Turk looks like throwing a punch out there they are all screaming and they press the buttons.
“We can only control our own performances. Paddy controlled that and we are very happy with the performance. His engine was fantastic, some things we have to address as regards feinting and being in the right distance when he is punching. Outside of that there has been a massive improvement.”
There were no complaints about Tommy McCarthy losing out on a place in the final of the heavyweight division after the 21-year-old felt he underperformed in his meeting with Vladimir Cheles. Having to win the competition outright he was probably handed the toughest job of the Irish team.
He was trailing by just a point after the first round where his jab was again doing its job to good effect. But McCarthy held back too much, which was an invitation to Cheles and ultimately the Belfast boxer paid the price. He found himself 8-6 down after six minutes to the busy Moldovan, finally losing the bout by three points, 15-12.
“Waiting too long in the first round. Too late then,” said a disconsolate McCarthy. “Last round I was trying to put the pressure on. I’m better than that fella. I’m just devastated. Four years is a long wait. I’m gutted. I can’t make any excuses. He did the job on the day and I didn’t.
“I didn’t achieve what I set out to do. It’s a big disappointment. I was better than that fella. I beat myself more than anything. I know I could have won that.”
OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS: Story so far
49kg: P Barnes (Ire), F Ferhat (Tur), M Cappa (Ita), A Aleksandrov (Bul).
52kg: O Nordine (Fra), S Eker (Tur).
56kg: M Turkakadze (Geo), M Abdulhamidov (Aze), D Ceylan (Den) P Ishchenko (Ukr).
60kg: V Safaryants (Blr), J Taylor (Sco), E Pertauskas (Ltu), F Keles (Tur).
69kg: A Nolan (Ire), P Wojcicki (Ger).
75kg: A Ogogo (GB), A Kilicci (Tur)
81kg: B Muzaffer (Tur), V Huseynli (Aze)
91+kg:T Yoka (Fra), M Omarov (Rus).
