Belfast Barnes Makes London

Belfast light-flyweight Paddy Barnes got over both some pre-fight nerves and having the wind knocked out of him in the opening round of his Olympic qualifier in Turkey this afternoon to become the fourth Irish fighter to qualify for this summer’s London Games.

The 25-year-old beat Romania’s Stefan Caslarov 17-9 in his three-round bout in Trabzon to make the semi-finals in the 49kg class and guarantee one of the four slots available in the weight division.

The Holy Family boxer, who won bronze four years’ ago in Beijing, admitted afterwards that nerves and a body blow from his opponent in the opening round were the main obstacles in his way.

“I was very, very nervous because I knew what was at stake and I think it showed in my performance a bit,” said Barnes. “I was a bit edgy, a bit nervous; I was throwing a few silly shots because I knew I was better than the guy.

“In the first round he came out and slipped me a body shot. I tell you what, I couldn’t even breathe. I sucked it up and I think I hurt him with my own shots and he backed off a bit,” added Barnes, who led 5-3 after the opening round.

He stepped it up in the second round to ensure Caslarov had no way back into the contest, winning the round 7-3 and extending his lead to six points. The Romanian fighter looked to be struggling going into the final round and Barnes took it 5-3 for a comprehensive 17-9 victory.

“I should have pressed on and stopped him but I was just happy with the win. Once I knew I was up on points I was playing safe,” admitted Barnes before stating his ambitions for this summer in London.

“Hopefully another medal of a better colour. I’m the European and Commonwealth champion. Hopefully I can be Olympic champion this year too.”

Barnes will now fight Turkey’s Ferhat Pehlivan in Fridays’s semi-finals.

Earlier, Adam Nolan maintained his hopes of a place at London 2012 with a superb 17-13 victory over Tamerian Abdullayez. The Bray Garda produced an excellent final round in a closely fought contest to earn a place in the semi-finals.

He needs to win his next bout on Friday to secure one of the two places available in the welterweight (64kg) category. Nolan, from Wexford, led 6-3 after the opening round but his Azerbaijani opponent demonstrated his mettle to win the second 8-6 and leave the Irishman just a single point ahead, 12-11, going into the final three minutes.

The Irishman, fighting in his first major international tournament, kept his composure to win the third and last round, 5-2 and earn his place in the semi-finals. There he will face Romanian Gheorghe Ionut and the Irishman will be grateful that he has avoided local Turkish fighter Koroglu Abdulkadir; the latter will fight German Wojcicki Patrick in the other semi-final.

Nolan admitted: "I took my foot off the gas a bit in the second round and my corner told me that I was only a point up going into the last round. It was do or die at that stage. I worked hard in the first half a minute and got my lead back up to three or four points. I'm just happy to get the win. I improved on the last day and will have to do that again in the semi-final."

The news wasn’t as good for David Oliver Joyce as his bid for a place at the London Olympics came to a disappointing end when he was outpointed 19-10 by Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauskas at the quarter-final stage.

The St Michael’s, Athy man needed to win his bout to guarantee a place in the Olympics but was well aware of the magnitude of the task having sparred against Petrauskas in the past. He described the Lithuanian as physical and that certainly appeared to be the case as Petrauskas dominated the first two rounds opening up a 7-3 advantage after three minutes and then extending that to 13-6 by the end of the second round.

It meant that Joyce had little choice but to chase after his opponent in the final three minutes but the Lithuanian proved his mettle by outpointing the Irish boxer 6-4 for a comprehensive victory

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