The hard way for Jackson

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 14

The hard way for Jackson

NZPA staff correspondent Montreal David Jackson. New Zealand's welter-weight boxer, will fight a Russian. Valery

Rachkov, as scheduled, in the second round of the Olympic contest on Saturday morning i(N.Z. time). Games officials said yesterday the International Boxing I Association had decided not

e.to make a redraw because ol c the 80 African withdrawals, g The effect of the 1.8.A.’s decision, which required a ■ rule change to go through, is ? that some boxers will protigress beyond the second round without having had a fight. Jackson, however, New Zealand’s first successful Olympic boxer since 1928, will have to do it the hard way. He beat Tunisian Fredj Chtioui on Sunday night, and if he beats the Russian on Saturday, he will again be drawn against boxers who are still in the competition. Other fighters will be more fortunate. Officials said it would be possible for some boxers to get into the quarter-finals without landing a punch. The reason will be that those boxers will have been 'drawn to meet the winners of bouts where neither boxer showed up. Disappointed spectators i booed and jeered as the AfroArab boycott again cut through the Olympic boxing programme yesterday. In the afternoon session, eight of the scheduled 16 I second series bouts were lost ■and a further six were going to be missing from the evening programme. Among those who profited from walkovers were fly-weight (51kg) medal prospect Ramon Duvalon, Cuba’s Pan-American champion, and the talented young Briton, Charlie Magri. Normally Duvalon and Magri would not have been allowed their walkovers, having received byes through the ■first series. But because of I the chaos caused by the mass of African and i Arab countries, officials have

'Waived Olympic Boxing Association rules. I There was more booing from the 5000 crowd at the] Maurice Richard Arena when jthe Hungarian referee (Mr Gyorgy Sermer) ruled out France’s Aldo Consentino. a bronze medallist at the 1974 world championships in Havana, in a bantam-weight (54 kg) contest against Bulgaria’s Tzatcho Andreikovski. After two even rounds, a blow to the stomach dropped Consentino in the third. The Frenchman beat the count but as he circled to continue the bout, the referee called a halt. Consentino, in no apparent discomfort, held his arms out lin disbelief and the crowd I also reacted angrily at being deprived of yet more entertainment. I But there was full value ■for the spectators from another bantam-weight contest between Pat Cowdell, ■ three times British champion —on each occasion at a different weight—and the talented Pole. Leszea Borkowski. Cowdell, pale and fraillooking, belied his appearance las he continually jolted Borkowski with rapier-like jabs. ;AII five judges decided for !the Briton, whose performance established him as a leading medal contender.