Irish make last-ditch Olympics plea for Ward
In a formal letter to Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, the chairman of the IABA, Dr John Lynch said they were surprised with the decision given against Ward on Monday.
The Moate teenager, ranked third in the world and reigning European light heavyweight champion, dropped a controversial 18-15 hometown decision to Bahram Muzaffer that cost him his place in this summer’s Olympics.
“As a result we appealed the decision as per AIBA rules, it was rejected,” Dr Lynch said in his letter. “This means that Joe Ward is now the highest ranking boxer at 81 kilos not to qualify. We should point out that in our 100 years’ existence our association has always accepted the rules as set out by AIBA and will continue to do so.
“However we would ask that Mr Ward be considered for inclusion in the Olympics in 2012 under the tripartite selection quota or any other avenue.”
Earlier in the week the president of the IABA, Tommy Murphy, raised the matter with the president of European Amateur Boxing Association, Dr Humbert Furgoni from France, who promised to take a sympathetic look at it.
Meanwhile, the world rankings published yesterday has Ward third behind the world champion, Julio Cesar La Cruz from Cuba and Damien Hooper from Australia, who Ward beat to win his world youth gold medal.
Darren O’Neill is ranked third at middleweight as he continues his preparations for London 2012, John Joe Nevin, who qualified for London when he won his bronze medal at the world championships in Baku, is ranked number four while Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes, who qualified for London in Trabzon, is ranked seventh.
Ireland’s reigning world champion Katie Taylor is ranked number one lightweight, which is good news ahead of the world championships in China where seeding will be in place.
This is the only Olympic qualification tournament for women boxers.
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