DAMEAN KELLY of Belfast is through to the second round of the flyweight division, but only after a desperately close struggle against the Bulgarian Julian Strogov early this morning.
Kelly, Ireland's number one hope for a boxing medal, was awarded a 12-11 points win after trailing 3-8 a minute into the last round.
It was not a performance to encourage hope for a protracted run. He had beaten his Bulgadan opponent with some ease in Sweden in January.
Eventually it was the Bulgarian's tendency to hold, rather than anything the Belfastman produced, which earned Kelly a place against the tall Australian Hussein Hussein in the second series.
Strogov, strong but scarcely brilliant, appeared to have the bout under control until he was publicly warned for the first time by the Japanese referee.
That reduced Kelly's deficit to 8-5. Only then did Kelly begin to make contact with the Bulgarian's head and a good left right combination spun Strogov in the centre of the ring. From there on Kelly grew in confidence and after the scores had been tied once more at 9-9 Strogov strayed into one error too many when he received a second public warning which ultimately cost him the fight.
For a man who rates as one of Europe's better flyweights Kelly was uncommonly sluggish in the first round chasing his man repeatedly without ever succeeding in timing a punch sufficiently accurate to cause Strogov any problems. Strogov was three points clear before the Irishman eventually got the range in the last 10 seconds to level 3-3.
Disturbingly Kelly was not credited with a scoring punch for the entire second round, but in fairness this seemed to me to be an indictment of the new computer system of recording punches rather than the Belfastman's failure to entice Strogov into error.
At 6-3 behind entering the last round, Kelly was clearly in trouble but then the Bulgarian's mistakes, the tell tale signs of a man whose strength was rapidly running out, fell foul of the referee.
For all his inadequacies on the night, the Irishman was remarkable upbeat in his assessment of his performance. "I always knew I was on top" he said. "He was quick and very had to get at but I just kept plugging away in the hope that he would break. And eventually he did."
Kelly, who ended the bout with a badly discoloured eye after being caught with the Bulgarian of elbow in the second round added. "If you want to be the best you got to beat the best. Remember this guy was a silver medallist in the European championships.
"He was very strong and very awkward when we got in close but he couldn't expect to get away with it over three full rounds." For all his optimism Kelly will be the first to acknowledge that he must produce significant improvement if he is to beat Hussein in the next round.
The Australian showed himself to be a clever defensive boxer in grinding out a 11-8 win over Carmine Molaro of Italy and, no less than Strogov, he will be a difficult opponent to catch.
