‘Disconcerted’ boxing chief queries judging as Egan exits

THE President of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, Dominic O’Rourke, said he had concerns in advance of Kenneth Egan’s light heavyweight contest on Wednesday night when he heard people around him expressing regrets that Croatia had just one boxer remaining in the world championships.

That boxer, Marijo Sivolija, went on to outpoint Egan, 17-9, in Chicago, depriving the Dubliner of a place in the quarter-finals and redirecting him to the qualifiers in Italy and Greece next spring in pursuit of that place in the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“It was something that caught my ear when I heard those people talking,” O’Rourke said. “And I found it a bit disconcerting. Maybe I am over emphasising the thing in view of what happened in the ring here.”