Boxing:The Bulgarian boxer who defeated Katie Taylor in the Strandja Multi-Nations lightweight final yesterday apologised to the Wicklow woman afterwards for what the Irish camp claimed was an unfair decision.
Taylor was adjudged to have lost 5-1 to Denica Eliseeva in Pazardjik, but her coach and father Peter Taylor and fellow cornerman Pat Ryan insisted she won each of the four rounds.
"In fairness to the Bulgarian girl she apologised to Katie because of the result after the final - she showed her sportsmanship which is always good," Ryan said afterwards.
She wasn't the only one Eliseeva sought to apologise to during the tournament. After the Bulgarian registered her 1-0 win over Ingrid Egner in the semi-final, the Norwegian claimed Eliseeva approached her to say "sorry".
"I landed a lot of good shots and she didn’t touch me," Egner wrote on her website, ingridegner.com, afterwards. "Came in to the corner and I said to (coach) Martin; 'this is fun'. The score was still 0-0. I was thinking; 'is this a joke?'
“In the third round I continued thinking I must soon get a single point (or are these East European judges blind?). And then she got a point. Score after the 3rd round 1-0. I said to Martin: 'I’m losing. I cannot get any points', he just smiled and said I should have been up at least 15 points and he told me to punch from start to end in the fourth and last round.
"And so I did and she looked f**king hurt. Anyway, I lost the match 1-0. I felt the whole thing was a joke so I raised my arm smiling, showing a V with my fingers and the crow (sic)shared. After the match she came up to me, like telling she’s sorry. It’s not her fault. In these situations you cannot blame the boxers.”
Taylor, the current World, European and EU champ and 2010 AIBA World boxer of the year, was said to devastated by the defeat against an opponent she beat 16-1 in the 2010 European Union final in Hungary and 8-1 in the 2009 European Union final in Bulgaria.
The tournament featured the three women's Olympic weights of flyweight, lightweight and middleweight. 150 boxers from 22 nations were competing.
At the 2011 IABA Elite Championships at the National Stadium last night, Moate boxer Joe Ward booked his place in the light-heavyweight final against 10-time champion Ken Egan.
The 2010 AIBA World Youth champion beat Davey Joe Joyce, a 2008 bronze medallist, by eight points to two.
He will meet Egan in the final on Friday night.