Dean Clancy distraught after losing first Olympic bout to split decision
DEJECTION: Ireland’s Dean Clancy speaks to the media after the fight. Pic: Ryan Byrne, Inpho
Distractions are everywhere at the Olympic Games. The build-up, the expectation, the Village: it all goes into a pot that can bubble over long before an athlete stands on a track or climbs into a ring.
Dean Clancy’s Olympic debut was mere minutes away when the giant screens here in Villepinte switched to a marriage proposal in the bleachers. She said yes, they hugged, the crowd went wild.
And then it was Clancy’s big moment.
Facing him was Jordan’s Obada Al-Kasbeh, a man making his third appearance at the Olympics after Rio in 2016 and Tokyo five years later.
The Jordanian had lost first time out on both occasions but he qualified impressively at the qualifying event in Italy back in March.
He was the bigger boxer here and, as it turned out, the wilier. Clancy, a counter-puncher, never quite seemed comfortable with what he labelled later a “messy” fight.
Al-Kasbeh dominated the first round, taking it 4-1 and the second 3-2, even as Clancy began to find his feet.
A point deduction for the Jordanian was the break Clancy needed and winning the third round 3-2 left him in with a shot.
It wasn’t to be, a split decision going against him.
How close was it?
Clancy, on the back of that point deduction, actually got the vote on two scorecards, Al-Kasbeh just the one. Confused? Isn’t this always the case with boxing?
Al-Kasbeh went through purely on the basis that the two judges who had scored it even were tasked with leaning one way or the other and both went for the Jordanian.
Them’s the rules.
There was actually a case for Al-Kasbeh to face an earlier point deduction in the second round but this was still impossibly close with both fighters making confident shapes in the ring as they awaited confirmation of the result.
“The winner … in the red corner…” And that was that. Clancy qualified for Paris a year ago and now his Games were over in just over ten minutes.
The raw emotion was written all over the 23-year-olds as he emerged into the mixed zone with the sweat and the adrenalin still pumping.
“I thought it was a good fight. It took me a bit to get my distance right. I knew it was going to be a rough and physical fight. I thought at the end of the first I had found my distance. I won the second 4-1 (sic). I tried to continue that in the third round but it went against me.”
If Al-Kasbeh’s swift start took the crowd by surprise then Clancy had come to expect it. The pair had sparred just weeks ago at a multi-national pre-Games camp in Saarbrucken. That one went much better for the younger man.
It’s been a long wait for this day. They spent 13 days in camp in Germany and he had been in the Olympic Village since Monday, but there was no suggestion that he had failed to bring his best because of the bright lights to the north of this big city.
“I was more nervous coming on the bus. I don’t really mind the crowd. Obviously, it’s amazing to be in the ring, I’m grateful to be in the position I’m in.
"I want to thank all my family and friends for coming out, sorry I didn’t get the win today.”
With that, he choked up, the pain of the moment sinking ever deeper as he no doubt thought of his family members up on the crowd, including his father and coach Jason Snr who had been a picture of tension in the hours beforehand.
What more was there to say?
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