Irish fans on song but judges’ Zhang call draws scorn

AS THE official anthem of Kazakhstan began to fade, the unofficial anthem of Ireland began to pound out from a corner of the Workers’ Gymnasium in the minutes before Kenny Egan took the ring for yesterday’s Olympic Light Heavyweight gold medal bout.

The chorus started slowly but quickly found some momentum and even the Kazak fight fans in the midst of this 200-strong green enclave had little difficulty in learning the words of ‘Ole, Ole, Ole’.

They were merely returning a favour as those same Irish men and women had worked themselves into a frenzy supporting Bakhyt Sarsekbayev en route to a shock victory over Cuban favourite Carlos Banteaux in the welterweight decider. Things got a little difficult for the Kazaks when the Irish began to extend their repertoire to ‘The Fields of Athenry’ yet it mattered little as the decibel level seemed to be hitting triple figures from the patch which included friends and family of the Dubliner along with a huge representation from the Irish Olympic team.