Gavin misses Olympic weigh-in
Shattered Frankie Gavin, who was born in England of Irish parentage (Tipperary and Dublin), flew home to Birmingham with his Olympic dream in tatters as British boxing chiefs promised to launch an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his failure to make the weight, for which he was a reported 1.2kg over.
While the world champion and those around him were devastated it came as no surprise because he looked a very big lightweight when he won the world title in Chicago last October to install himself as a gold medal favourite for Beijing.
Before and after his sensational victory in Chicago, he peddled his immense boxing talents at light welterweight (64 kg) but, with another exceptional talent in Bradley Saunders operating in that division combined with the fact that he had qualified at lightweight, he was clearly going to be faced with another titanic struggle if he was to challenge for Olympic gold.
He took that battle to the trenches at the holding camp in Macau and, subsequently, the Olympic Village where yesterday he reluctantly conceded defeat 24 hours ahead of this morning’s weigh-in.
“Frankie has been working his whole boxing career towards the Olympic Games and he is obviously completely devastated,” said Great Britain coach Terry Edwards.
The enforced departure of one of the potential stars of the Olympic boxing tournament is bound to raise some questions about Gavin’s weight-making tactics if not weight management tactics in general.
Having fought at light-welterweight throughout last year with the exception of the world championships in Chicago, he frequently professed his difficulties in making the weight.
Obviously it was felt that he could repeat in Beijing what he did at the world championships in Chicago.
Gavin’s shattered Hall Green amateur coach Tommy Chaney refused to elaborate on what he believed were the 22-year-old’s reasons for failing to make the weight.
“It’s important now that the attention is shifted to the remaining seven boxers who all have a fantastic chance to medal,” he said. “That’s what Frankie wants and he’ll be watching avidly on the television despite how upset he is right now.”
His gold medal from the world championships makes him hot property and he will now be faced with deciding whether he should turn pro or wait until the London Olympics in four years time.
Bradley Saunders, who could come up against Ireland’s John Joe Joyce in the coming weeks, is now the leading British medal hope in boxing.
The Cubans, however, will have a major say in the destination of 10 of the gold medals according to head coach, Pedro Rogue, who dismissed suggestions that they were a spent force.
The Cuban academy has been ravaged in recent years by a whole series of defections — three to Gary Hyde’s new professional nursery in Cork, including one boxer who was a favourite for their Olympic team — and even the experts here have been reading quite a bit into the fact that they failed to get their full quota qualified for this year’s Games. That awesome gap is in their coveted light heavyweight division where Ireland’s Kenneth Egan operates.
Maybe the old order is about to change — maybe they are not the potent force they were four years ago in Athens where they amassed five gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
Cuban head coach Rogue has also hit back at suggestions that they had lost their edge following the spate of defections.
“Psychologically, our boxers are not affected by this,” he said referring to the defections. “In Cuban boxing there is big competition for places and everybody wants to be the best of our country. Our boxers don’t feel they are just replacing the defectors. They feel that now they have their chance to shine at the Olympics.
“Everybody says this is a young and inexperienced team but the majority of our boxers are youth champions. Five of them won gold medals at the Pan-American Games and that is something that gives us a lot of confidence.”
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