Outclassed Irvine and Donnelly exit with few regrets
RAIN on Friday meant sunshine yesterday. That appears to be how it works in Rio. Light and shade split the days between them.
The Ireland team are on the opposite schedule. Paul and Gary O’Donovan set the country afloat on Friday. A prosaic reality broke back in yesterday.
The boxing team has been squeezed down from eight to two. That the remaining pair always represented the best opportunities of gold medals is only a partial comfort. The sense clings on that Ireland have not made the best of what they had.
That is germane to the cases of Paddy Barnes and Joe Ward, whose exits were unexpected.
No troubling load was heaved on to Brendan Irvine or Steven Donnelly. The 20-year-old from Belfast and the 27-year-old Ballymena man were not supposed to save Ireland here. The truth was that neither was expected to get much further than here.
They didn’t. Crisis is the talk again. The circular row about the absence of Billy Walsh and how it would have been different if he was here and why he isn’t and is with another country instead has resumed.
It is an argument with no satisfactory solution, but it is still joined with enthusiasm by those who had assumed medals would be hanging off the ropes at the Riocentro.
That is the drab compound opposite the athletes’ Village. It is where Donnelly stood and proclaimed his happiness with his Olympic experience. As the vague accusation of under-performance is slung around, he is one man who must remain untainted.
He won two fights and then he was drawn against the world champion. Mohammed Rabii of Morocco emphasised the accuracy of that hierarchy with a sound win. It was a split decision, but mainly because the Moroccan was deducted a point in the final seconds.
Donnelly was also given a standing count before the final bell. He protested that he had tripped and was not knocked. None of it mattered then. The outcome was clear long before the last bell.
A win here would have guaranteed him a medal, but it never looked feasible.
‘No regrets at all,’ he said. ‘As I say, I’ve lifted the spirits in the camp twice now and unfortunately I couldn’t do it again today after Wee Rooster (the nickname of Irvine) losing but I can walk away with my head held high. I’ve done great and I’ll continue to do great in this sport.
‘I believe in myself, I always have and it’s been a long journey for me. I’m going to hold my head high.’
His left eye was blackened and swollen after a blow he took in his fight on Thursday. But his mood was vibrant. He talked about the possibility of turning professional, and mused about staying in the amateur ranks.
He wasn’t sure about that. It was a rare subject on which he equivocated.
‘I proved myself there,’ he said. ‘But this is the quarter-final of the Olympic Games against the current world number one and the world champion.
‘I thought I done myself proud out there, and everyone back home. I’m sure there were lots of kids watching. If that inspired them that would be something positive coming away from here.’
Irvine had been beaten an hour earlier, and his defeat was even more emphatic. His Olympics started and ended in the span of 15 minutes.
He lost to an Uzbek called Shakhobidin Zoirov. It looked as if one of Irvine or the Uzbek had clambered into the wrong ring.
The definition in his opponent’s upper arms made stark Irvine’s slim body, like that of an adolescent’s still waiting to be shaped into a man. It didn’t look possible that they could both be fighting at flyweight.
And from the first bell the difference between them was obvious. Zoirov was faster, more aggressive and his punches came with the speed and menace of startled rattlesnakes.
‘I just lost to the better man on the day,’ he said. ‘I had a good gameplan going into the fight but unfortunately I got caught with some stinging shots in the first round and I had to change it. I was always trailing from behind. I just had to dig deep and give it everything.’
He fought at flyweight because Barnes had qualified at light fly. Given their respective trials, a switch in weights may have worked better. But then it was impossible to see how Barnes would have survived in against Zoirov.
‘The Olympic Games, the 10,000 best athletes in the world; it’s a great achievement for me at 20 years of age to be able to represent my country and my family,’ said Irvine.
Of course it was. His defeat brought on no crisis. It was simply a day in the shade for Ireland after the brilliance of Friday.
It’s been a long journey – I’m going to go home holding my head high