Commonwealth Games Day 6
By Nigel Ringland in Delhi
SINI boxer Paddy Barnes finds himself in a situation he knows all too well. It was just over two years ago in Beijing that he came up against the host nation in the semi-finals of the Olympics. On that occasion he lost to China’s Zou Shiming, 15-0, on points.
Now history has repeated itself.
The Holy Family fighter was clinical in disposing of Australian Andrew Moloney in the light-flyweight quarter-finals yesterday to guarantee himself at least a bronze medal, the third of the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland. The current European champion outclassed the Aussie winning 5-3 on points.
Now he faces Amandeep Singh, the home town favourite, once again with a place in the final at stake.
The majority of the capacity crowd in the small Talkatora Arena were behind Barnes with the chant of PAD-DY, PAD-DY heard throughout his last eight bout but he’s unlikely to get the same level of support in tomorrow’s contest.
Barnes joked, “I think they might start shouting kill Paddy, kill Paddy, but no it was fun to hear although I was just focused on the fight. I don’t know much about the Indian to be honest, I watched him and he’s a good boxer but I’ve a lot of experience of being in this type of position before so we’ll see how it goes,” said Barnes.
Singh looked impressive in his win but the feeling always is that the boxers from the host country tend to have an advantage with the judges so Barnes knows he’ll have to win convincingly and leave nothing to chance.
“His defence was magnificent, he really has it down to a tee and he’ll give the Indian everything he can handle. He has nothing to fear, he takes everything in his stride and is totally focused on the job in hand,” explained coach Mickey Hawkins.
And how does Barnes consider his chances of turning at least a bronze into something better.
“Well that’s what I’m here for, to try and win the gold so we’ll see what happens next. I’m aiming for the gold.”
Whatever happens it is the first boxing medal for the province since Liam Cunningham took silver and Brian Magee bronze back in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur and there may be much more to come.
In fact there are five potential medals at stake in quarter-final action today.
SINI athlete and team captain Eamonn O’Kane fights Samoan Afaese Fata at middleweight while Steven Ward, fresh of a 7-4 victory yesterday against Australian Giancarlo Squillace has a tough task against Manpreet Singh from the hosts.
Tyrone McCullagh suffered a reoccurrence of a hand injury suffered at the European Championships during his 7-2 win on points over Ibrahim Balla, another Aussie, at bantamweight yesterday.
“I hurt it in the first round but managed to pull it back. I haven’t been sparring as much because of the injury,” he explained.
Hopefully it doesn’t affect him today against Sean McGoldrick from Wales.
It’s a Namibian opponent, Mujandjae Kasuto, for welterweight Paddy Gallagher while at light heavyweight Tommy McCarthy overcame Leoanard Manichi of Tanzania and now faces a tough Kiwi Reece Papuni.
On the final night of competition in the pool the girls 4x100m medley relay team – Melanie Nocher, Bethany Carson, Sycerika McMahon and Clare Dawson finished sixth setting a new Ulster record of 4:18.47, breaking the old one set in the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur.
PDC athlete Sycerika McMahon was called up to race in the 400m Individual medley as there was a last minute withdrawal, so Sycerika swam in the final, another huge achievement for the 15year old.
Sport Northern Ireland Performer Development Centre athlete Laurence McGivern was fifth in the final of the S10 100m freestyle with a new personal best and during the week the team set two Irish Junior Records, two Ulster Junior records, five Ulster Senior Records and reached ten semi-finals and seven finals.
However Sport Northern Ireland funded athlete Andrew Bree failed to make it out of the heats of the 200m breaststroke in his last race in a Commonwealth Games career that has spanned twelve years.
The Helen’s Bay athlete had hoped to reach his third consecutive final after finishing fifth in Manchester and Melbourne but illness this week cost him his chance.
He was fourth in a time of 2:16.66 behind Scot Kris Gilchrist and world record holder Christian Sprenger from Australia.
“I’ve been sick the last two days so better to try it and fail than not to do it at all. I’ve just been feeling horrendous. This time yesterday I wasn’t going to swim at all and I just didn’t feel strong, I felt very weak,” he said afterwards.
“I just wanted to get in and try it, but I’m two and a half seconds of the pace and just not sharp, I felt like a schoolboy out there. Unfortunately I had to finish like that, not how I wanted to go out at the Commonwealths.”
Bree will now look forward to next year and beyond to the Olympics in 2012.
He added, “That’s the big one for me and especially the world championships next year so I’m already looking forward to recovering, having a week off and then getting back into it. Hopefully go race at the worlds next year and qualify for the Olympics there and then be able to prepare for London.”
Michael Dawson was 14th in the same event while McMahon just missed out on a place in the final of the 400m individual medley finishing in ninth place. Carson was 12th in the 200m butterfly.
The bowlers aren’t fairing well in the heat and humidity of Delhi. The men’s triples needed to take only a set of England in their final group game to make the semi-final play-offs and Neil Booth, Paul Daly and Martin McHugh led 8-4 in the second set with only two ends remaining but then gave away five shots to lose 9-8 and with Guernsey winning their last game they crashed out of the competition.
Despite winning their last two games Ian McClure and Gary McCloy also missed out on the medal hunt as Scotland beat Canada to eliminate them.
Hopes now rest with 21 year-old Gary Kelly from Ballymoney in the men’s singles and he opened with a win over Aussie Leif Selby.
“To play like that and to win like that gives you a lot of confidence. I was down four in the first set and found a way to sneak a win out of it 9-8. Then when I beat him 12-0 in the second I knew I was really playing well. It really helps to get off to a great start against a great player. Moving forward from here I know I’m ready to play my best.”
And he did just that in his second game beating Indian Mohammad Raja in straight sets.
Northern Ireland’s shooting team is still on the medal hunt.
The men’s full bore rifle competition got underway yesterday and four-times gold medalist
David Calvert and Ross McQuillan are off to a solid start.
In the pairs event they lie sixth after the first day while Calvert is tied-third in the singles with McQuillan seventh.
The medals won’t be won and lost until Wednesday in the blue riband event.
“It’s a nice start. We have a long way to go. If we have to go 100 yards, we have covered only 10 yards today,” said Calvert.
The men’s trap will conclude today with silver medalist from four years ago, David Beattie, in 7th place on 72 targets hit, just three off the lead. Mervyn Morrison is down in 17th place.
In the women’s trap SINI athlete Kirsty Barr was 17th and Debbie Bader 19th overall and in the men’s pistol centre-fire pairs Robert Doak and Hugh Stewart finished ninth.
SINI athlete Amy Foster has reached her second semi-final of the week also running a season’s best time of 24:19 in the heats of the 200m while
18 year-old Christine McMahon finished 6th in her heat of the 400m hurdles in a time of 1:10.27 which wasn’t enough to progress.
The badminton team all had wins in the last 64 of the individual competitions.
Sinead Chambers and Caroline Black recorded victories in the women’s singles; Tony Stephenson in the men’s and Chambers joined forces with Matthew Gleave in the mixed doubles.
PDC athlete Mark Montgomery was ranked 5th in the 96kg freestyle wresting while Madeline Perry and Zoe Barr lost their opening game of the women’s doubles in squash and Amanda Mogey made it through qualifying to the first round proper of the singles in table tennis were she will join Na Liu but Claire Nelson and Ashley Given missed out as to did Paul McCreery in the men’s event.
