High performers still travelling an ambitious path

BOXING: Johnny Wattersonon how after failing to capitalise on Carruth's gold in 1992, boxing is kicking on from Beijing.

THE National Stadium was characteristically unvarnished last night, unassuming. From the auditorium down to the cold backrooms, where the boxers were warming up, you could hear the hiss of expiring air as they hit pads and moments later emerged in red or blue vests, teenagers, young men, foreheads beaded.

Some looked solemnly fearful, others walked to the ring with a swagger of intent, their adrenalin barely contained and the ones who had been there before, like eight-times champion Ken Egan, moved to the ropes with an air of menace, purposeful, proud achievers. The common hope was this would be their night, their starting point for the dream three of them lived last summer in Beijing.

Entries in the National Championships this year were up from 67 to over 100. Aspiring Egan-like figures looked at the 17 major international medals the sport has won in senior and junior competition over the last 12 months and sought to become part of it all. From Beijing, Egan, Paddy Barnes and Darren Sutherland brought belief.

“Up to over a 100 this year, definitely it’s a good reflection,” says national coach Billy Walsh. “Everybody felt out there that they could do it. So, they’ve had a go.”

For amateur boxers the ordinariness of the Stadium, its homely feel and its dusty corners represents the old game and traditional values. But of all of Ireland’s Olympic and World Championship sports, boxing has best kept pace with modern demands.

Old values live, old methods die. Performance now is a function of work ethic, professional coaching, personal development of the fighters and inclusiveness.

“Some times we’re inclined to play five-a-side soccer in the gym that often turns into rugby,” says Walsh. “I look at whose playing and we’ve settlers, travellers, black, white, Catholic and Protestant. In that gym we live together, room together. We travel the world together and we support each other. We haven’t had any Muslims yet but they’re on the way and we’ll welcome them.”

Gary Keegan, who put the high performance programmes together, understood early on that weak personalities, those who cannot respect themselves or others, do not make medal-winning prospects. He saw that development of the person would serve performance and so they put a high value on that side of the grooming process.

“We have quite a lot of travellers in boxing,” says Keegan. “Maybe that says something of our sport and the equality in our sport. You cannot run a programme without respect for everyone. We have never, ever, had an issue that concerned me.

“When I heard (traveller) John Joe Joyce being interviewed in Beijing, I thought he stood above many of the others in his sportsmanship, how articulate he was and the responsibility he took after just missing out on a medal.”

That wasn’t reflected in Ireland. John Joe Nevin’s welcome home was a succession of slammed hotel doors. The philosophy of the team with regard to travellers had yet to move beyond boxing.

“It should have been respected when they came back. They should have been treated better,” says Keegan with a tinge of regret in his voice. “But no, I don’t think it has tainted what they achieved. They are not crusading for anyone. They are boxers. That’s what they are.”

There was no fuss made in the gym. The two fighters came to training as they always did. There was no change of attitude, little obvious hurt. “Maybe that says something about the prejudice they regularly face,” adds Keegan.

Despite that and the internal wrangling that denied Keegan Olympic accreditation and forced him to be a distant observer in China, the feeling as boxing moves towards 2012 is overwhelmingly positive.

Anecdotally, kids are going to gyms, and there are 50 in the high-performance program. The sport is determined not to let them slip through as they did after Michael Carruth’s gold medal and Wayne McCullough’s silver in 1992. After Barcelona there was Nicolas Cruz and little else. The sport couldn’t capitalise on the wave of interest.

There are no centres of excellence decorating the provinces and in the current economic climate they are unlikely to pop up before London. But the structures that put boxers on podiums last summer are in place and evolving. They take their cue from the great Cuban coaches, who always believed Cuba should be the hardest graduation school. So Ireland has become.

“See that building,” says Egan, pointing to a gym behind the National Stadium. “It’s all professional now. Gary put it all in place. We’ve dieticians, physiotherapists, coaches and we’ve great connections with the Russians, French, Germans.

“We’re the only team invited over by the Russians. It’s a great thing. We go over there and we’re mixing with the top country in the world. I remember back in 2002-03 we used to go to Poland to train. We don’t go there any more because it’s no test for us. The Russians now are better than the Cubans.”

Egan, himself, is another encouraging factor. His high profile, his looks, roguish twinkle and some leery photographs splashed around the tabloids have not been badly received. Whatever about the veracity of the stories the impression they have left is a healthy 27-year-old from Neilstown can be a leader and a winner. The popularity of a sport can swing on such public notions.

Egan tells a story of the day he arrived home after China. “A man came up from the country, came to my local, the day I came back (from Beijing) on the Tuesday,” he says. “I didn’t think it would be as big a deal.

“I always wanted to represent my country in the Games and to win a medal was super. But the affect it had on that man . . . I put the medal in his hand and the tears started, he became very emotional . . . I sent him down a signed shirt afterwards.

“He was in hospital then and his daughter brought in the T-shirt to him and he broke down crying again. He actually rang the house, was talking to my mother, you know ‘thanks very much’ and all that . . . it’s nice to be able to touch someone like that.”

Sentiment is all very well but Keegan’s plans, now being put into action by Walsh, Jim Moore and former Georgian champion Zaur Antia will continue. Egan’s was the fourth silver of 12 Olympic medals won since the State was founded, after John McNally (1952), Fred Tiedt (1956) and Wayne McCullough (1992). The fact he remained amateur was pivotal. All but four of the 12 Olympic medal winners turned professional. Egan wavered but like Tony Byrne, Jim McCourt and Barnes, turned his back.

“It was significant for him to stay amateur,” says Keegan. “It took us nearly six years to develop that performance culture. It would not take so much to tear it down.

“In the education of the boxers we looked at the professional game. We painted a picture that professionalism wasn’t for them. They didn’t listen to us. So, we changed tack. We made the high-performance programme the most amazing place to be. We made it so they could make a career here. It wasn’t only Ken, but four amateurs stayed. Darren was always going to turn professional even before Beijing.

“But for Ken now the silver medal will never be diminished. The silver medal would have been forgotten about if he’d turned pro.”

Walsh sees Egan now as a leader, a touchstone. “They see their team-mates winning, they train side by side and they believe they can do it,” says Walsh.

The mantra in the sport is there is no hierarchy, no untouchables. Respecting achievement is a different thing. Walsh sees Egan some day taking over his job as coach. He’s content to paint that picture of the future, while the fighter seems not distracted from that career path either.

“Hopefully, I can be there in 2012 and be the only Olympian to win two medals,” says Egan. “That’s my goal. I see myself as a role model. I see myself as the captain of the team for the foreseeable future. I feel I’m up to that role and I’m good enough for that role. I’ve shown it in Beijing. Hopefully I will still be part of the team, leading kids on and picking out the good ones.”

That is a difficult science. Coming out of the 2007 World Championships, Barnes was the only boxer qualified for the Olympics after the team had arrived in Chicago with six possibles on the launch pad. They came home and the support staff were sent on holidays to reflect, the boxers debriefed by an independent brought in from Britain. “If you keep pushing all the time, you will make mistakes. The big guns just didn’t manage the responsibility too well,” says Keegan. “But there is a gut feeling, an intuition you get if you stick close.”

He says people must not under-estimate what it takes to put a system in place but that post-Beijing, boxing is in a better place than post-Athens. But he also strikes a note of caution in that “our own people must realise what we have.”

No other Irish sport outside swimming has ever won three Olympic medals in one Olympic Games. No other Irish sport has put 12 athletes on Olympic podiums. No other Irish sport has ever had two travellers in a five-man Olympic team. Perhaps soon Ireland will realise what it has.

Roll of honour

EU Championships 2008, Poland: John Joe Nevin – gold; David Oliver Joyce – gold; Darren Sutherland – gold; Ken Egan – gold; Paddy Barnes – silver; Con Sheehan – silver

World Youth Championships 2008, Mexico: Ray Moylett – gold; Jamie Kavanagh – silver; Thomas McCarthy – bronze; David Joe Joyce – bronze

European Championships 2008, Britain: Eamonn O’Kane – bronze; John Joe Joyce – bronze; Ross Hickey – bronze

Women’s World Championships 2008, China: Katie Taylor – gold

Olympic Games 2008, China: Ken Egan – gold; Paddy Barnes – bronze; Darren Sutherland – bronze