O'Neill, Nevin and Conlon secure London spots

BOXING:ORDINARILY, SECURING three spots at London 2012 would be reason enough for unbridled joy in any camp but that it could so easily have been more left a bittersweet tinge to yesterday's efforts by Billy Walsh's boxers in Baku.

For those who missed out – light-heavyweight Joe Ward, lightweight David Oliver Joyce and welterweight Roy Sheehan - there will be another chance at the European Championships in Istanbul in April, while all three could yet qualify from Azerbaijan if those who beat them make the final.

Despite that and the fact his squad achieved its stated objective in a frantic afternoon’s boxing, Walsh was somewhat sombre afterwards. “There’s a mixture of emotions,” he said. “We’ve reached our target but unfortunately there are a few places that we were unfortunate not have achieved. He added: “Yeah, we’ve reached our target, we’ve achieved our goal, we’ve another qualifier to go to and we have a very strong team to go to that qualifier and hopefully we can add to our total there.”

The good news story began with middleweight Darren O’Neill, who was followed to London and into the quarter-finals by bantamweight John Joe Nevin and Belfast flyweight Michael Conlon (19), who fulfilled his potential with a 20-17 win over France’s 2008 Olympian Nordine Oubaali.

All three will fight for medals from 11am today, with O’Neill due to face Ryota Murata of Japan, Orzubek Shayimov of Uzbekistan awaiting Nevin and Conlon preparing to face Welsh European champion Andrew Selby.

O’Neill comfortably beat Bulgarian Mladen Manev, who he saw off en route to European silver medal last year. The Kilkenny teacher was leading 6-4 after the first and held a 13-9 advantage going into the third before clinching the last eight place with a 19-12 win.

“It’s a dream come true. It’s brilliant,” said the Paulstown BC fighter. “This is what I have been dreaming of since a young, young age. I’m going to enjoy it.”

Nevin reached his second Olympiad after a count back decided a brutal contest with Mongolian Otgondalai Dorjnyambuu. It ended 18-18 with the Irishman taking two standing counts.

Trailing 13-11 heading into the last, a late flurry of aggression drew him level before he was finally declared the winner on a count back. “I said to myself ‘if you can beat him for one round John, forget about the judges, forget about everybody else. Keep picking up the scores’. Once I caught him I knew he was going to jump because he was caught silly. Then I nailed him again and did it, thank God.”

Conlon (19) produced the performance of the day when battling hard to beat Oubaali. He trailed by two after the first but won the second to leave the scores level at 11 apiece and landed nine scoring blows in the third and final round.

“Aw, great feeling,” said Conlon. “Very good fight, yeah, very tough guy. He was very fit and just kept coming. But I was just as fit and my work-rate was really high. I just kept pushing on, I knew I could beat. Oh God, I’m so happy now, I’m over the moon.”

The same could not be said for the beaten trio, however. Joyce lost his bout against Jai Bhagwan 30-32, the two-point deficit accounted for by the referee’s decision to penalise him for pushing five seconds from the final bell.

Ward (17) lost out on a count back. The European light heavyweight champion was 15-15 with Iranian Ehsan Rouzbahani before being edged out on review. “I can’t believe it, getting beaten,” he said. “Four judges had me winning, one judge had me losing and I lost on a count back. It is just devastating.”

Sheehan lost 11-7 to Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas, but he too felt hard done by after going into the final round two down. “That two-point lead he got going into the last round messed my head up,” said the Athy boxer.

Clonmel’s Con Sheehan, who was not yet fighting for an Olympic spot, bowed out against Italy’s Roberto Cammerelle.