Egan still regrets ‘losing the gold’ at Beijing Games

Kenneth Egan has said he feels he lost out on a gold medal at the Beijing Games.

The Dublin boxer revealed that he decided to don boxing gloves when he was just 10, after watching Michael Carruth win gold in Barcelona in 1992.

Egan was the country’s most successful competitor in Beijing in 2008, claiming a silver medal, but he said on Saturday Night With Miriam that he still regrets losing his closely fought final bout in the ring.

He said: “I lost the gold. Everyone says to me I went to the Olympics and I won the silver. I lost the gold in the final; that’s how I look at it. OK I came home with the silver medal, an amazing achievement. If I was offered that at the start of it, I would have taken it with both hands.

“It was a close final and he came out on top but it is behind me now and it’s history and it’s great to have been part of it.”

He said he was very disappointed when he failed to qualify for the London Olympic Games as part of the Irish team of five male boxers and the country’s female star, Katie Taylor.

He said: “Of course I was (disappointed). I trained hard for two years to try to get to London. I slipped up twice and didn’t get to qualify.

“I have accepted it now. It would have been great to get to London. It’s so, so hard to qualify.”

The boxer, who is now teetotal after a much-documented battle with alcohol, said he has reverted to his childhood name of Kenneth for the past year.

He said: “It’s Kenneth these days. I made (the decision) 13 months ago when I had problems with drinking and came off the alcohol. It’s back to Kenneth. It always was Kenneth, even before the Games.

“The whole Kenny mania only happened after the Games and lasted two years. It’s Kenneth now. I am healthy again.”

Egan, who will sit on the RTÉ panel this summer, said the standard in boxing has risen even since the last Olympics when Ireland came back with an impressive haul of medals.