HOURS before it was confirmed that the European Olympic qualifier in London was to be suspended after the close of yesterday’s evening session, Aidan Walsh danced his way to victory over Estonia’s Pavel Kamanin.
That leaves him within two wins of realising his Olympic dream – but how long will he now have to wait for his next fight, having been scheduled to take on Frenchman Wahid Hambli in the last 16 on Thursday?
That’s if he even gets to box him at all, if the results from this ill-fated competition will still stand. So many questions and, with just over four months until the Games are due to start in Tokyo, so little time.
Boxing masterfully on the back foot, Walsh – whose sister Michaela was due to enter the fray today against France’s Mona Mestiaen - invited fellow counter-puncher Kamanin to do just that, and any time he did the west Belfast stylist was ready to pick him off. Across the three rounds, the Estonian may not have landed a meaningful shot on his slick opponent.
With his hands hanging low, Walsh was perpetual emotion, constantly circling back and forth, never presenting a moving target in a comprehensive victory.
"I'm happy with my performance,” said the talented 22-year-old.
“It's just good to get the competition started, I’ve a lot of hard training behind me and I'm just looking forward to the next one.”
Little did he know there would be no next one, at least not for quite some time.
Middleweight Michael Nevin, also chasing a top six finish, followed Walsh into the last 16 with a split point decision over experienced Dutchman Max van der Pas.
Nevin started well, dominating the first round on the back foot before a clash of heads left Van Der Pas cut over the left eye in the second round. That seemed to focus his mind and he finally had some joy closing the distance on Nevin, though it wasn’t enough in the end – even though one of the five judges inexplicably had him winning all three rounds.
The Portlaoise fighter was due to face Arman Darchinyan next after the Armenian ended the hopes of Italian third seed Salvatore Cavallaro yesterday.
Twenty-five-year old Darchinyan, a nephew of former two-weight world champion Vic, has been based in California since the end of last year after turning over to the professional ranks.
He scored a second round knockout on his debut back in October, and is scheduled to fight Lucius Johnson in Hollywood on March 29. It looks likely he will have at least one more pro bout under his belt before he meets Nevin down the line, assuming the International Olympic Committee continue the competition from where it left off.
Earlier in the day there was disappointment for Carly McNaul after she came up short against Great Britain’s classy Charley-Sian Davison.
The Lowescroft flyweight, who was returning to the ring after a six-year exile, used her height advantage to impressive effect, boxing beautifully behind the jab and then following through with several hard southpaw lefts.
McNaul, a late call-up to the Irish squad for Cavan’s injured Ceire Smith, kept moving forward but just couldn’t close the gap, leaving herself open to Davison counters as she went on the offensive.
The Belfast woman was given two standing counts in the third and final round as she made one last desperate attempt to land something meaningful on Davison, who scored a wide decision win to get her campaign up and running.
“I boxed well considering I haven’t done it in a while competitively,” said Davison.
“I’ve only had spars in training but that’s totally different to doing it for real, especially at an Olympic qualifier.
“I got a couple of counts but I knew this girl was just going to keep coming, no matter how many shots you hit her with. She's a strong girl."
IOC CALL HALT TO LONDON QUALIFIER AFTER THIRD DAY
THE decision to even commence the European Olympic qualifier over the weekend, in the midst of the escalating coronavirus crisis, was utterly bizarre and potentially reckless.
It came as no surprise that, having the previous day announced that the competition would be played out behind closed doors, last night saw confirmation come that the tournament would be suspended after the evening session.
What a shambles. The International Olympic Committee’s boxing taskforce who, in their wisdom, thought it right to proceed despite virtually every other sporting organisation in the world deploying due care towards its athletes and supporters at the tail end of last week, issued a statement just after 5pm yesterday evening.
In it, they said the decision to call off the event was made midway through the third day of action due to coronavirus concerns and the impact on athletes' travel arrangements.
Irish boxers Michaela Walsh, Kellie Harrington, George Bates, Aoife O’Rourke, Emmet Brennan and Kiril Afanasev were all due to take part in last 16 fights today, with Aidan Walsh, Michael Nevin and super-heavy Dean Gardiner all preparing to box tomorrow.
It is immediately unclear whether the initial results of this competition will stand, throwing an already hard-hit Tokyo 2020 qualification process into further chaos.
"In light of significant recent changes in the coronavirus situation and growing concerns relating to the welfare of athletes, officials, staff and volunteers, the IOC's Boxing Task Force (BTF) has taken the decision to cancel the rest of the Road to Tokyo Boxing Qualifier from Tuesday 17 March 2020,” read the statement.
"The decision has been made in conjunction with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Boxing Road to Tokyo Qualifying event amid the increasing global travel restrictions and quarantine measures which are impacting on the travel plans of athletes, teams and officials and affecting their ability to return home."
The International Olympic Committee was already due to meet officials from national Olympic committees and sports federations today to discuss qualification procedures for the Games.
The subsequent Americas Olympic qualifying tournament and World Olympic qualifying tournament - which were scheduled to take place in May - have also been suspended, further muddying the waters.
The Americas tournament was due to take place in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires from March 26-April 3 before being suspended last week, while the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament was scheduled to have been held in Paris from May 13-24.
