Women's Boxing: Mary Hannigan on yesterday's efforts to establish a starting point for the sport in Ireland
It's barely a week since the International Olympic Committee announced it had decided against including women's boxing in the 2008 Games, making boxing and baseball the only sports that won't have women's events in Beijing.
It was a blow to those who are passionate about the women's side of the sport and are desperate to see it given Olympic approval but for fighters like Nicola Andrews it's not a big deal just yet: the London Games in 2012 might just be a more realistic target. She is, after all, just 12 years old.
Andrews, along with 59 other female boxers, turned up at the National Stadium in Dublin yesterday, armed with her medical records and sundry other documentation, to register with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, through its Women's Boxing Subcommittee.
"What this day is all about," explained Sadie Duffy, secretary of the women's subcommittee and Ireland's first female boxing referee, "is to ascertain how many girls/women are involved in clubs and are boxing competitively around the country. It is an opportunity for them all to register at the one point and record their names, dates of birth, weights, so we can establish a starting point for the sport.
"From here we can sort out matching, it's a chance to get an idea of everyone's abilities so we can grade them, and down the line we're looking at holding a national championships. We can now record their proper weights and sort everyone into categories, which begin at 11 years of age, up to 17 and then we have a 17 to 34 category (intermediate/senior). It will give us an idea of what's there."
While there was some disappointment yesterday that only 60 boxers turned up to register James Fahy, a coach with the Tobar Peadar club in Galway, insisted there were significantly more female boxers in the country, but many were unable to travel to Dublin yesterday or, in even more cases, were not yet ready to fight competitively.
"We coach 164 kids in our club," said Tommy Rapple of Monkstown, "and 50 of them are girls - but we only brought 11 of them here today because the rest aren't ready yet, they're still learning. There's a huge growth in the number of girls taking up boxing and I can tell you, they're easier to coach than the lads - they actually listen to you," he smiled.
Andrews was one of Rapple's good listeners, one of the Monkstown 11. "Some of my friends were boxing so, when I was about 11, I just said I'd give it a try and I found it was easy for me, I knew that I was able for it. Now I'm just in love with boxing. I didn't know I'd love it at the start but since I'm in it for ages I know I love it now," she said.
"I train two days a week but sometimes I'd help the coaches teach the other younger girls," said the 12-year-old. "I told my friends in school that I box but they don't really believe me, but they will. I never knew that I'd be fighting in a stadium like this, what I'd love to achieve is just to fight in the biggest stadium in the world. I love boxing and I just don't want to let it go, I just want to keep on going on with it, I'm really enjoying it."
In the afternoon and evening Andrews and any of the other 59 who could be matched with a similarly sized opponent took part in three-round bouts, each lasting one and a half minutes. Bout number one lasted barely a minute, the trainer throwing in the towel after his Galway fighter was swamped by flailing punches from her Keady opponent, Nicole McQuillan.
The next contest was more competitive, lasting the three rounds.
The winner was Clara Fraher from Dungarvan, the 14-year-old loser trudged away, still looking resplendent in her Barbie pink shorts with "BITCH" inscribed across the front. The National Stadium may never be the same again.
