Barnes first Irish boxer to book Beijing ticket

PADDY BARNES became the first Irish boxer to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games with an emphatic 33-12 points victory over the highly-rated Japanese champion, Kenju Ohkubo, in an action-packed contest at the world championships in Chicago yesterday.

Lightweight Eric Donovan made his exit from the tournament at the wrong end of 29-12 verdict in favour of the Italian Domenico Valentino.

At that point Paddy Barnes from Belfast had battled his way into the top eight flyweights in the world with a controlled performance.

Picking up vital early points from two accurate left jabs and a sizzling combination, he proceeded to win the opening round 5-1.

He added a point from another three-punch combination at the start of the second round. Lightning-fast hands and dazzling combinations had him eight points ahead before Ohkubo claimed his second point of the contest and Barnes won the round 8-2.

That left him with a comfortable cushion going into the third but he never took his foot off the pedal, keeping his opponent at bay with two and three-punch combinations that resulted in enough scores to win the round 4-1.

Ohkubo threw Barnes to the ground twice in frustration in the final round but Irishman won the round 7-2 for an emphatic victory.

Barnes would have been long odds to be Ireland’s first Olympic qualifier in boxing when he joined the high performance squad after the EU championships last June, and he was the first to admit it.

“I had no chance of getting to the world championships before that,” he said.

“Now I am at the world championships — still in the competition — and I have qualified for the Olympics. It’s a dream come true for me.”

He said he was prepared to do whatever it took to win that contest yesterday.

“I was always going to dig as deep as it took,” he said. “A place in the Olympics was at stake out there and what more motivation could anyone need?

“I just had to go for it right from the start and that’s what I did. I could not afford to drop behind at any stage.

“He was a small, stocky strong opponent. He did not hit me at all. I just kept him at bay with those combinations. It was a technical battle out there and I just breezed through it.

“To be the first man to qualify for the Olympics means so much to me. There will be a big party back home in Cliftonville tonight.”

And they will be celebrating at the Holy Family/Golden Gloves boxing club where he is coached by the legendary Olympic coach, Gerry Storey.

For today’s quarter finals he has been paired with the reigning world champion, Shiming Zou from China, who was a bronze medallist at the last Olympic Games in Athens. He beat the Russian David Ayrapetyan 20-5 yesterday.

When Eric Donovan and Domenico Valentino met in the EU championships in Dublin last June, the Italian won on the 20-point rule — 30-20 — and it appeared as if he might repeat that performance.

This time, however, the Athy man, who lost the first round 12-3 and the second 7-2, stood defiantly in the third, caught his man with some big shots causing Valentino to tie him up to such an extent that he got a public warning at the end of the third but, leading 26-10 at the end of the round, he was never going to be caught.