Boxing: Beijing light-flyweight bronze medallist Paddy Barnes followed David Oliver Joyce's lead this evening and now needs just one more win at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Trabzon, Turkey, to secure a place at London 2012.
Both fighters are into their respective quarter-finals after Barnes stopped his Hunagarian opponent in the second round and Joyce won with an impressive tally of 22-14 over Germany’s Artur Bril earlier this afternoon.
Barnes was trailing Istvan Ungvari 4-2 after the first round but rained down a fierce combination of four or five punches that halted the Hungarian just one minute and 24 seconds into the second round.
After the referee intervened with a standing eight count, Ungvari was invited to resume the fight but chose not to and the bout was stopped.
“He ran,” said Barnes afterwards. “Feared for his life. Once I got him in that corner I was never letting him out. Ah yeah, I hurt him. He kept wincing and I told him not to carry on and he didn’t. Usain Bolt, I think he was. He wanted to qualify for the Olympics in running, not boxing.”
Barnes will meet Stefan Caslarov of Romania tomorrow.
In the 60kg weight category, Joyce took on Bril in a repeat of the Chemistry Cup quarter-final, which the Irishman won on a count back.
This time was a little more straight forward for the St Michael’s, Athy, clubman. He was slow to start but took a narrow 7-6 lead from the opening round. He then outpointed Bril 8-4 in the second round and 7-4 over the final three minutes.
“We’re happy enough, it was a solid performance rather than exceptional,” said coach Billy Walsh afterwards. “There is a lot at stake as you are all aware of.
“He was a little bit sluggish, a little bit tired, because he had a rest day yesterday and sometimes the engines switches off. It took him a while to get going today but I think he’ll be better tomorrow. Sure, he’ll have to be.”
The man standing between Joyce and London is Evaldas Petrauskas from Lithuania, a boxer he sparred with in Ukraine recently.
“They tore lumps out of each other,” said Walsh. “He’s very physically strong. Davy’s typical fight, which is inside, may not suit on this occasion, so we’ll have to come up with some different tactics to try and beat him.
“He’s (Joyce) nine minutes away from London and he’s going to leave everything in that ring to try and get there.”
April 18th - Quarter-finals
Afternoon - 60kg:David Oliver Joyce (Ireland) v Evaldas Petrauskas (Lithuania); 69kg: Adam Nolan (Ireland) v Tamerlan Abdullayer (Azerbaijan)
Evening -
49kg:Paddy Barnes (Ireland) v Stefan Caslarov (Romania); 91kg: Tommy McCarthy (Ireland) v Josepf Darmos (Hungary)