HE’S A JOLLY FAST FELLOW
20 seconds is all it takes for history to be made
SCOTTISH welterweight Tyler Jolly made history with the quickest win in the history of Commonwealth Games boxing.
The record was the 21 seconds it took Swaziland flyweight Leonard Makhanya to beat Kerry Webber (Wales) in their semi-final in Edinburgh in 1986.
Jolly beat that by one second, blasting out Daniel Hylton ( Jamaica) with a perfectly placed left hook to the stomach.
Welsh twins Ioan Croft and Garan Croft were both winners.
Ioan went through at welterweight with a unanimous points win over Jean Jordy Vadamootoo (Mauritius).
From the opening bell, Croft put the smaller Vadamotoo under pressure with his feet and was accurate with fast jabs and counters.
Two of the judges gave him the opening round 10-8 and there was no way back from there for the Mauritian.
Garan had to tough it out in the final three minutes against Abdul-afeez Osoba (Nigeria) after building a points lead in their clash at 71kgs.
The division also included Aidan Walsh, bronze medallist at last year’s Olympics, and European champion Harris Akbar. Both had unanimous points wins, but Akbar was made to work harder.
Walsh (Northern Ireland) dominated Arena Pakela (Lesotho) while boxing within himself, and Akbar kept the dangerous Ghanaian southpaw Jessie Lartey under control.
Lartey, a bronze medallist at 64kgs four years ago and competing at his fourth Commonwealth Games, landed a punch in the opening 30 seconds, but barely laid a glove on Akbar after that.
The Englishman kept Lartey pinned on the back foot with long, straight combinations and the Ghanaian was unable to do anything about it.
The aggressive and busy style of Welsh teenager Owain Harris-allan brought him a 4-1 verdict over Phomolo Lengola (Lesotho), and Scotland’s Matthew Mchale also went through at 54kgs.
He won the last round against Barbados southpaw Jabali Breedy on all the cards to grab victory, dropping him with a left hook and firing off nine unanswered punches to force another count.