Sport Northern Ireland funded athletes Eamonn O’Kane, Steven Ward, Paddy Gallagher and Thomas McCarthy are all guaranteed at least a bronze after winning their quarter-finals yesterday as they joined Paddy Barnes in the last four, a magnificent effort put in by the team led by coaches Stephen Friel and Mickey Hawkins.
The semi-finals all take place today.
Ward’s victory was the sweetest as he beat India’s Manpreet Singh at heavyweight by a point, 11-10, in a dramatic conclusion that saw the home favourite penalised two points in the final round for holding.
“He was a good referee. He knew what he was doing wrong and was able to pick up on that,” said the Newtownabbey fighter.
“I am buzzing. It is something that I deserve after eight years of competing. I left a job as a carpenter before the squad was picked to train full-time, so it has all paid off.”
He added, "It's a great result and it just shows the level of development in this squad. Everyone's here to put in half work and all the boys have gone out and done us proud. All we have to do now is change the colour of the medals."
Scot Stephen Simmons stands between Ward and a shot at goal and will hold no fear for the 20 year-old.
Sports Institute Northern Ireland athlete Eamonn O’Kane laid the ghosts of Melbourne four year ago to rest when he beat Afaese Fata of Samoa 7-2 on points. The Dungiven middleweight came close to retiring from the sport after losing out on a Commonwealth medal in 2006 but wanted one more try.
“My emotions are running wild here at the minute. Four years ago I was beaten to a medal by a Samoan so there was a lot of thinking going on before hand but I put in a polished performance and I’m over the moon. It’s taken four years to get that vindication but now I have it, happy days,” he said.
O’Kane now faces Kieran Harding of Wales in the semi-finals later today.
“The pressure is off as far as bringing home the bacon but I came here for gold and so there is still pressure. Everybody is beatable.”
Earlier in the day welterweight Paddy Gallagher came back from a two-point first round deficit to beat Namibia's Mujandjae Kasuto, edging ahead when his opponent was warned for holding, then evading Kasuto's increasingly desperate bombs for a 7-5 win.
“The first round was hard, the other two fights I’ve been up for it and totally focused but I wasn’t feeling 100% going into the ring and then I went a point down and that sort of woke me up and then when the public warning happened I said to myself you’re back in it. I tried to keep a nice tight guard because he was a strong fella and he threw a lot of punches,” explained the Belfast man.
Next up is Dilbag Singh of the host nation.
“Everything is possible. I think I’ve proved myself here so far and it just gets harder from here. I’ll just do my own thing, at the end of the day it’s not the crowd you’re fighting. It may be intimidating but that was the biggest contest I’ve ever been in and I’d thought about whether I’d freeze and it would be too hard to handle but I just went in an took it like any other fight. That’s what I’m going to do with the next one.”
Light-heavyweight SINI athlete Thomas McCarthy produced and fine display and showed composure beyond his nineteen years to overcome New Zealand's Reece Papuni 7-2.
McCarthy said afterwards, "I could afford to take my foot off the pedal a little bit because I knew I was winning comfortably. I had to concentrate because I knew he could bang, but I eased off slightly because I am boxing again tomorrow."
He’ll now face Kenyan Joshua Makonjio while first in action today looking to set the tone will be Paddy Barnes who has Indian opposition at light-flyweight in the shape of Amandeep Singh.
However the only blot on the copybook came at bantamweight when Sean McGoldrick from Wales beat European bronze medalist Sport Northern Ireland PDC athlete Tyrone McCullagh. There was only one point in it, 4-3 the final score .
“I struggled to get going and I never really found my range but I didn’t think he scored four points, I thought the referee was terrible but what can you do,” he said ruefully.
“I didn’t box well so maybe I didn’t deserve to go through but I don’t think he did either.”
So five medals from a team of nine and it’s helped Northern Ireland surpass their pre-Games target of five medals across the board with seven now secured.
SINI athlete David McCann made an audacious bid for a Commonwealth Games gold medal yesterday in the 168km road race around some of the iconic sites of the Indian capital including the Presidential Palace, Parliament House, Connaught Place and India Gate.
The 37 year-old from Dunmurry who won bronze last Thursday as part of the track pursuit team was part of an opening attack of five riders.
That was soon whittled down to just two – McCann and New Zealander Gordon McCauley who formed the day’s main breakaway in the second lap.
In temperatures that soared to 42 degrees they widened the gap to three minutes but as the pace at the front of the peloton quickened so the gap closed and they were eventually caught.
An elite group formed with two laps to go, one that still included McCann, Scot David Millar and Tour de France hero Mark Cavendish, riding for his native Isle of Man.
Attacks began in earnest to try to drop the sprinters and that succeeded with Aussie Allan Davis winning the sprint to the line.
McCann didn’t quite have the legs and finished eleven seconds adrift in 5th place.
"I felt good so I went with it and I didn't expect to go right to the end of the race,” said McCann afterwards who now has until Wednesday to recover for the time trial in which he finished fifth four years ago.
"I'm a bit concerned about the time trial. Two days will have to do but three would have been nice. I've already got a bronze medal in the Team Pursuit, which I'm delighted about. We will have to see if I'm finished yet."
Adam Armstrong was 15th, Philip Lavery 24th and Sean Downey 39th. Martyn Irvine failed to finish.
Heather Wilson finished 19th in the 112km women’s road race finishing in a time of 2:49:38 just eight seconds behind the winner after a bunch sprint.
Four-time Commonwealth champion and Sport Northern Ireland funded athlete David Calvert has his eyes set firmly on another gold medal as he moved to the top of the standings after the second day of shooting in the full bore rifle singles.
Now in his ninth Games, Calvert, who also has three bronze medals, was lying third overnight as the competition moved to the 500 yards stages.
Conditions were made even harder as strong winds tested the shooters’ skills.
By the end of the day the 59 year-old who lives in Cambridge but is a member of Comber Rifle Club, was in a tie for the lead with Gareth Morris of Wales. From today when the distances increase to 600 yards and beyond so the gap in points are expected to widen.
Ross McQuillan is in eighth place and the duo are lying seventh in the pairs competition.
Meanwhile David Beattie was denied a chance to try and better his silver medal in Melbourne four years when he lost in a shoot-out for a place in the single trap final.
Beattie started the day perfectly hitting all 25 targets in the fourth round of shooting but then missed two of his final twenty-five leaving him in a five-man shoot-off for one final spot.
It came down to Beattie and Robert Auerbach of Trinidad and after four successful hits each, the Loughgall man missed and his opponent hit sending him to the decider.
Seventh place for Beattie is not what he was hoping for but he remained philosophical.
“It was something else, wasn’t it? I shot very well, I couldn’t have done anymore, it came down to a single barrel shoot-off and I lost, that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but I’m very happy with the way I performed. If I’d made one more target and shot 25 in the final the best I would have finished was fifth so that shows the standard.”
This will be his last Games but he has fond memories.
“There comes a time when you have to stand down and we have two or three young fellows who will hopefully be in Glasgow but this has been a wonderful experience.”
Mervyn Morrison finished 17th while in the men’s singles 25m centre-fire pistol Robert Doak was 19th and Hugh Stewart 24th.
On the track SINI athlete Amy Foster produced a season’s best time of 23.78 seconds in the 200m, finishing fifth in her semi-final.
"I'm delighted as it is only the second time I have broken twenty-four seconds so I'm not far off my personal best which is 23.75. I felt pretty strong but maybe missed a little bit in the middle of the race and then came back strong again in the end and of course threw myself over the line. I've made two Commonwealth semi-finals and have two seasons best. I would have liked PBs but I am delighted nonetheless. Four rounds and I'm still standing!" she said.
Kelly McNeice rebounded from the disappointment of missing out in the 1500m by finishing fourth in her semi-final of the 800m in 2.04.72.
Not enough to make the final but at least it put a smile of the Lisburn athlete’s face.
She said, "I'm really delighted, I knew it would be tough to make the final so I just went out and gave it everything.”
In bowls Gary Kelly made it three wins out of three in the men’s singles to top Section A after a straight sets win over Matt Le Ber from Guernsey.
The badminton team’s goals before heading to Delhi were to qualify for the last sixteen in as many disciplines as possible.
So far they’ve achieved that in the mixed doubles and women’s singles.
Matthew Gleave and Sinead Chambers came from a set down to beat Joshua Green and Cristen Callow from the Isle of Man to set up a clash with England’s Anthony Clark and Heather Olver.
The Northern Ireland duo lost the first set 19-21 but then rallied 21-13, 21-15.
"It was a pretty tough match but we played well,” said Gleave. "I wasn't in my best form today,” added Chambers.
The 18 year-old would go to lose in the women’s singles but Caroline Black, 16, also from the Co. Down town, beat Kate Fookune of Mauritius 21-14, 26-24 but next plays number one seed Saina Nehwal from Indonesia.
That’s as far as the success went. The two girls lost in the women’s doubles, as did Gleave and Tony Stephenson in the men’s doubles and Stephenson, who trains in Denmark, also lost out in the men’s singles 21-7, 21-19 to Kindelpitiyage Karunathilaka of Sri Lanka.
"In the first set I didn't play very well, and I wasn't really positive. I need to work on my movements. I was out of position and he was able to win points. We are all still really happy to be here. The targets that we set were realistic. Unfortunately we didn't make all of them,” he said.
In squash SINI athlete Madeline Perry and Zoe Barr lost their second pool game in the women’s doubles to Tania Bailey and Sarah Kippax of England are with two defeats are now out of the competition with one match remaining.
In table tennis Na Liu and Paul McCreery were knocked out of the mixed doubles at the last 32 stage while Amanda Mogey lost in the first round of the women’s singles.
