Varied programme for Games boxing contenders

Press, 3 February 1984, Page 14

Varied programme for Games boxing contenders

By

JOHN COFFEY

Contenders for the New Zealand Olympic amateur boxing squad will have at least three opportunities for international bouts leading up to the start of the Games tournament at Los Angeles in July and August. New Zealand teams are to travel to the Oceania championships in Taiwan and the prestigious King’s Cup contest in Bangkok, before meeting an Irish national side in this country. There is also the possibility of a United States squad visiting New Zealand if negotiations being made by the Hutt Valley association are successful. It would not, however, comprise the American Olympic team although its members would be proficient competitors. The Oceania event begins in Taiwan on March 24, and the manager-trainer, Kevin Barry sen., of Christchurch, is hoping that the new selection panel (Syd Ashton, Les Rackley, Martin Ryan and Keith Walker) will name six or eight boxers.

New Zealand has fashioned a proud record in recent Oceania championships. Last year, in Sydney, the Wellington heavyweight, Michael Kenny, and the Canterbury light heavyweight, Kevin Barry jun., retained the titles won in Auckland the previous season.

Five of the other six representatives returned from Sydney with silver medals, testifying that New Zealand has the talent and depth to contest most finals at that level. Kenny and Barry later advanced to win Commonwealth championships in Northern Ireland and boxed with distinction against Russian opponents at the World Cup series in Rome. After the 1984 Oceania tournament Mr Barry and his team will travel on to Bangkok for the King’s Cup event, where the standard will be considerably higher. For that reason only the

more experienced and inform members of the team would be entered.

The Olympic nominations will need to be made before the Irish tour starts at Christchurch on May 3, against a South Island team. The fighting Irishmen then

meet North Island at Auckland before a full international against New Zealand at Wellington.

Because the six-man Irish team—to be coached by Gerry Storey, who filled similar roles at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch and the 1982 Games in Brisbane—does not include anyone in the two heaviest weights, other opponents will be sought for Kenny and Barry. It is hoped to match them with South Pacific title-holders in Wellington.

The enthusiasm of the Irish to travel so far was prompted by the friendships between the two camps when the New Zealanders were in Belfast for the Commonwealth tournament. Similarly, a Welsh squad is keen to have several tournaments, mostly in the South Island, in August. The younger Barry has a prior commitment against an overseas rival—he is to box in Invercargill on March 5 in one of several

bouts featuring a Fijian team.

Kenny, meanwhile, has been training in the United States and is to return to Wellington early this month. “The competition already arranged should be sufficient to top off our preparations for the Olympics,” said Mr Barry. Mr Barry does not subscribe to the widely-held belief that only Kenny and Barry have strong cases for Olympic selection.

He is keen that the fiveman team which travelled to Belfast last year—where Michael Sykes (Rotorua) and Billy Meehan (Manawatu) were silver medallists and Michael Flavell (Waikato) was eliminated in an earlier roundshould be retained, and added to, for the Oceania and King’s Cup trip to assist them in their bids for Olympic recognition.

Sykes’s credentials, in particular, should be given close scrutiny, said Mr Barry. “Some people consider him difficult to handle, but I have never had any problems with him and he has the potential to go further in the game.”

Because the New Zealand team is to leave for Taiwan in little more than six weeks, it is unlikely that official trials will be arranged. Known ability and past successes will count for most, although Mr Barry feels it is time that “some of the younger blokes who are coming through the ranks” could be considered for promotion.