COMMONWEALTH GAMES BOXING:NORTHERN IRELAND finished on top of the medals table in the boxing event at the 19th Commonwealth Games after claiming an historic hat-trick of gold medals in Delhi, India, yesterday.
Team captain Eamon O’Kane, Paddy Barnes and Paddy Gallagher all finished on top of the podium following impressive victories in the middleweight, light-flyweight and welterweight finals at the Talkatora Stadium.
But Tommy McCarthy and Steven Ward had to settle for silver after they lost their lightheavyweight and heavyweight duels to Callum Johnson of Scotland and England’s Simon Vallily.
Yesterday’s gold medal wins – two of which were earned at the expense of England – is a record haul in boxing for Northern Ireland and bridges a 16-year gap since Neil “Sinky” Sinclair and Jimmy Webb won gold at the 1994 Games in Victoria.
The haul also ensured Northern Ireland finished top of the boxing medals table ahead of India with England in third place at a venue where three-time world champion Katie Taylor won her first AIBA World title in 2006.
European light-flyweight champion Barnes dethroned defending Commonwealth champion Jafet Uutoni of Namibia, winning 8-4 over three, three-minute rounds to claim Northern Ireland’s first gold of the games in all sports.
Barnes, who won Ireland’s first gold at the European Senior Championships at the Ice Palace in Moscow this summer since Dubliner Paul Griffin in 1991, was 3-1 up at the end of the first round.
Uutoni pulled it back to 5-4 by the end of the second frame, but the Holy Family BC Belfast ace, a bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics, added another four points – one a via a beautiful left – to seal an impressive win.
The 23-year old will defend his Irish title at the National Stadium, Dublin, early next year and then all eyes will be on the 2011 World Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Baku, Azerbaijan next autumn.
Barnes certainly has his eyes on Baku and wants to finish on top of the podium there as well. “I rank all the medals together. I’ve won the Commonwealth gold, I’m champion of Europe and next year, hopefully, the champion of the world,” said Barnes. “I always felt I had the fight under control. I took the foot off the pedal a bit in the second round and he caught me with a few stupid shots, but even when the coaches told me I was only one up I knew what I could do and he wasn’t getting past my tight defence and I picked off my shots when I needed to.”
Meanwhile, Belfast warrior Paddy Gallagher, who boxes out of the Gleann BC, was 4-1 up against Callum Smith after the first round, but the English welterweight levelled it at 5-5 at the end of the second.
Both boxers were also locked at 6-6 heading down the final stretch of a thrilling 69kg duel, but Gallagher, who was giving away at least four inches in height, blasted home another five points to seal a famous 11-6 verdict.
O’Kane, meantime, went through England’s Anthony Ogogo, a former Big Brother contestant, for a short cut, winning the 75kg contest 16-4 over the three rounds.
He also found the energy to do a Michael Carruth-like jig in the ring after the final bell.
Speaking immediately after the bout, the emotional Immaculata BC Belfast middleweight, a bronze medal winner for Ireland at the 2008 European Championships in Liverpool, said he was thrilled.
“So many emotions at the minute. ‘Namaste’ as they say here! Thanks to everyone who’s made me the boxer I am today. My wife and my child are my world. She said I’d get gold from the start.”
McCarthy never really got going in his final with Scottish lightheavyweight Johnson and was 6-1 in arrears at the bell for the end of the second round.
Johnson also took the final round 2-0.
Heavyweight Ward, from the Monkstown club in Antrim, was stopped in the first round by Middlesbrough-native Vallily.
Michael Hawkins and Stephen Friel were working Northern Ireland’s corner in Delhi.
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