Boxing:John Joe Nevin, Darren O'Neill and flyweight Michael Conlon have qualified for next year's Olympic Games, but 17-year-old light heavyweight Joe Ward, lightweight David Oliver Joyce and welterweight Roy Sheehan failed to make it through for a London 2012 place at the AIBA World Championships in Baku.
“There’s a mixture of emotions,” said coach Billy Walsh, whose minimum aim was three places from 10 fighters. “We’ve reached our target but unfortunately there are a few places that we were unfortunate not have achieved.
He added: “Yeah, we’ve reached our target, we’ve achieved our goal, we’ve another qualifier to go to and we have a very strong team to go to that qualifier and hopefully we can add to our total there.”
A count back earned Cavan bantamweight Nevin his place in London, when his contest with Mongolian Otgondalai Dorjnyambuu ended 18-18, while Ward was denied a qualification place, also on a count back, after his contest finished 15-15 with Iranian Ehsan Rouzbahani.
Paulstown BC’s O’Neill emerged as a clear winner in his middleweight bout with Bulgarian Mladen Manev, leading from start to finish and winning by a 19-12 margin.
In the afternoon session, Joyce was left devastated after a points deduction seconds from the end of the final round meant he lost his bout against India’s Jai Bhagwan 32-30.
Joyce was ruled to have been leading with the head and the penalty proved crucial because he was likely to have won the count back.
Immediately afterwards, Conlon produced a barnstorming performance against France’s Nordine Oubaali to win 20-17. He trailed after the first by six points to four but won the second to leave the scores level at 11 apiece and landed nine scoring blows in the third and final round.
“Aw, great feeling," said a relieved 19-year-old. "Very good fight, yeah, very tough guy. He was very fit and just kept coming. But I was just as fit and my workrate was really high. I just kept pushin on, I knew I could beat. Oh God, I’m so happy now, I’m over the moon.
Asked what was said by coach Billy Walsh after he ended the first round two adrift, Conlon added: “He told me to go and I went, I pushed it. I gave it everything, I gave it my all and put my heart and soul into it. And I got the right decision."
Joyce's Athy clubmate Sheehan was vying for the last Olympic spot against Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas but lost 11-7 after a closely contested bout.
“It was a tough fight, I felt like I was way fitter than the other fella,” said Sheehan afterwards. “The first round was a draw then the second he came back and was two up, I thought that was a little unfair.
“And it changed the fight for me in the last round because I had to go to him. That’s just the way it goes. Another day I think I could beat him. That two point lead he got going into the last round messed my head up.
“We thought it would have been a draw or one or two up ourselves, but. Ah. It’s just disappointing, y’know.”
Clonmel super-heavyweight Con Sheehan, who was not in line for an Olympic spot until the semi-final stage, missed out on a place in the quarters when Walsh retired him in the second round of his bout against Italian AIBA World Champion Roberto Cammerelle after two trips to the medic for treatment on a cut.
Kilkenny school teacher O’Neill was the first Irish boxer to qualify by making it through to the quarter-finals. Leading the first round 6-4, O’Neill went on to hold a 13-9 advantage going into the third round before clinching the last eight place and his ticket to London 2012.
“It’s a dream come true. It’s brilliant,” said O’Neill. “This is what I have been dreaming of since a young, young age. I’m going to enjoy it. It’s a once in a life time experience to qualify for the Olympic Games and that’s what I’m going to do.
“We knew that boy (Manev) was very, very strong and could hit hard with both hands. I was thinking there was no need to get involved. We used the basic simple punching that we use every day of the week and it paid off.”
Nevin’s route was more fraught and in rounds one and two he took a standing eight count, which swung the bout in favour of his opponent. The first round ended 4-4 before the Irish 2008 Olympian fell behind 13-11 in the second frame.
“It’s my second Olympics and the man who beat me in the Olympics was a Mongolian,” said a delighted Nevin. “I’m happy with the performance.”
Chasing the fight, a late flurry of aggression from Nevin took him to 18-18 at the end of the third round before finally being declared the winner on a count back.
“I said to myself ‘if you can beat him for one round John…forget about the judges, forget about everybody else. Keep picking up the scores’. Once I caught him I knew he was going to jump because he was caught silly. Then I nailed him again and did it, thank God.”
Earlier in the session Ward was devastated after losing in the final 16 and missing out on a qualification place for London.
The European Champion at light heavyweight lost to Rouzbahani, on a count back, having drawn the bout 15-15.
“I’m very, very disappointed,” said Ward. “I can’t believe it actually, getting beaten. Four judges had me winning, one judge had me losing and I lost on a count back. It is just devastating.”
The first round ended level at 4-4 but turned into a real battle in the second round where Ward, who had never been beaten at senior level, needed a cool head. But the Irish fighter was penalised two points by the referee and trailed 12-8 going into the third round.
“I wasn’t stepping back as much as I usually do, counter punching. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know what happened at that time,” said the teenager, who has one final chance to make London in a qualification event in April 2012 in Istanbul.
Ward had a meteoric year in which he moved from junior to senior boxing and beat Beijing Olympic medallist, Ken Egan in the light heavyweight division in the National Championships before going on to with the European Championship gold during the summer.