Commonwealth Games Day 8
By Nigel Ringland in Delhi
It was another magnificent day for Northern Ireland’s boxers as five guaranteed bronze medals were all turned into at least silver.
One by one they followed each other into the ring at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium for their semi-finals and each time they left as winners.
Tomorrow could be something special.
It all started with light-flyweight Paddy Barnes, who is a Sports Institute Northern Ireland athlete.
Two years ago he couldn’t get past the Chinese favourite Zou Shiming in his own back yard at the Olympics in Beijing but at the same stage of the competition he wasn’t going to let history repeat itself against Amandeer Singh of India.
The Holy Family fighter scored with the first punch he threw and cruised to a 5-0 victory to set up a final with the reigning Commonwealth champion Jafet Uutoni of Namibia.
"I'm over the moon with my performance. I could have thrown more punches but I didn't want to waste my energy for the final. It was a tough fight, he’s a very classy boxer but a tight guard shut the fight up on one side and enabled me to score my points,” said the European champion afterwards.
“I was able to hit him with a few shots early on and I was hurting him, you could tell in his face. Once I got ahead I was able to cruise to victory.”
SINI athlete Barnes had paved the way and like the Pied Piper his team mates were keen to follow.
Welterweight Paddy Gallagher started out against another Indian, Dilbag Singh, at a frantic pace.
He established a 5-2 lead before having to survive a ferocious onslaught from Singh in a frantic final minute.
Gallagher clung on desperately to edge the contest 5-4.
He’ll now meet Englishman Callum Smith in the decider. “I was really fired up for this, as you know when the Indians are fighting the crowd can be intimidating but I was just focused on the fight. He throws a lot of punches but I put it straight to him and scored my points. I knew I was hurting him. It became a bit of a war. The final's another fight - I won't let it get to me."
Next up was light-heavyweight and SINI athlete Thomas McCarthy who saw off rugged Kenyan Joshua Makonjio, keeping his cool when his opponent temporarily reduced the gap to single point and ultimately easing away in the final round for a 9-4 win.
"I saw the other boys in the dressing room and it put a bit of pressure on me because I didn't want to be the only one to lose. But that's what makes the difference between top athletes and average athletes,” he admitted.
McCarthy now faces Scotsman Callum Johnson who he beat earlier this year.
Three down in the first session and three wins – surely the success couldn’t continue.
Well, no one should doubt the talent and experience of middleweight and fellow SINI athlete Eamonn O’Kane. The captain led by example with a controlled 12-6 win over Welshman Keiran Harding in a contest he never looked like losing.
“Getting to a Games final is something special, and I’m over the moon to get this far but the Welsh guy put up a good fight, his shot selection was very good. I’ve been there done that in the Commonwealth Games before and I know how to relax to get the best performance out there and that’s what I was trying to do.”
O’Kane’s father, two sisters and brother-in-law are out here supporting him while his wife, Nicola, looks after their 16 month-old baby back home.
“My wife has been telling me 'you’re going to win a Gold medal’. I didn’t believe her but now I’m starting to. She’s been a real driving force.”
He’ll now take on England’s Anthony Ogogo who went from television celebrity to world-class boxer after upsetting Olympic Bronze medalist Vijender Singh. In a controversial bout, Ogogo failed to land a scoring punch and earned all his four points from Singh, the second penalty with only twelve seconds remaining that made the score 4-3. The packed crowd weren’t happy to say the least and it didn’t help that Ogogo, better known as a 2008 housemate on reality show, 'Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack', then strutted around the stadium like Mohammad Ali. A disappointed Singh refused to speak to the media after the bout and late last night the Indians lodged a protest with event officials.
There was no way Steven Ward, who is funded by Sport Northern Ireland, could lose now at heavyweight despite being up against the highly fancied Scot Stephen Simmons.
In fact the 20 year-old Newtownabbey fighter made it look ridiculously easy, winning 6-1.
“I’m not going to say it was easy because Simmons is the kind of opponent you have to be wary off. He’s that strong, he’s that sharp and he’s that good but it was a good win for me going into the final and it’s a confidence boost and I’m starting to feel this is where I do belong,”
His final against England’s Simon Vallily should be one heck of a contest.
Only the English qualified as many boxers to the finals as Northern Ireland and it’s the best local showing since winning one silver and five bronze medals in Edinburgh in 1986 although those Games were marred by a boycott by a large number of African, Asian and Caribbean countries, over the Thatcher government's attitude towards British sporting links with South Africa in the apartheid era.
Northern Ireland still has medal hopes left in other sports besides boxing.
Gary Kelly, who is funded through Sport Northern Ireland, remains top of Section A in the men’s singles at the bowling. He came from a set down to edge world champion Safuan Said of Malaysia in a tie-break and then the 22 year-old from Ballymoney made it five wins out of five against Scot Paul Foster in his next game, also winning in a tie-break. His luck ran out in his final match of the day with South African Robert Donnelly who took the points after the extra three ends.
Kelly remains in pole position however to make the semi-finals with the final three group match-ups taking place today.
After three days of competition in the Full Bore Shooting at CRPF Campus, Kadarpur. Sport Northern Ireland funded athlete David Calvert dropped from first to fifth place after dropping two points in Stage Two of the 600-yard competition that marred his perfect score.
Welshman Gareth Morris has emerged as the only shooter to hit bulls-eye with every shot.
Calvert’s team mate Ross McQuillan lies 10th overall while in the pairs the duo also slipped to tenth place.
In table tennis Sport Northern Ireland funded athlete Na Liu made it as far as the last sixteen in the women’s singles before losing to fourth seed Beibei Sun of Singapore and she also lost in the second round of the women’s doubles with partner Amanda Mogey while Claire Nelson and Ashley Given were earlier casualties.
Local interest in athletics, badminton and squash also came to an end.
On the track James McIlroy missed out on a place in the men's 1500m final after finishing well off the pace in his semi-final in 3.50.13. McIlroy said he was disappointed and feel very tired especially in the last lap.
The women's 4x400m squad of Joanna Mills, Christine McMahon, Katie Kirk and Jo Patterson were sixth in their heat and exited but ran well finishing in 3.40.92 which is their second fastest time.
Zoe Barr and Madeline Perry played their last game in the women’s doubles squash against Guinea and won 2-0 but they were already out of the competition while in badminton Sinead Chambers and Matthew Gleave were beaten in the last 16 of the mixed doubles by English pair Anthony Clark and Heather Olver and Caroline Black’s run in the women’s singles came to an end at the hands of the world number three Seina Nehwan of India.
