Boxing: Top of the world
Katie Taylor after her victory over Argentina's Celeste Peralta in the Women's World Boxing Championships in Ningbo City, China
IRISH sensation Katie Taylor is due to touch down to a heroine's welcome at Dublin Airport this morning after retaining her World lightweight title at the fifth AIBA Women's World Championships in Ningbo City, China, on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Wicklow woman is now officially the best female boxer on the planet after claiming lightweight gold and the boxer of the tournament award after outclassing Cheng Dong of China in the 60kg final, winning 13-2 after three, two- minute rounds.
On the back of yet another great day for Irish boxing, Dublin Airport Authority might yet have to debate if they need to build a separate terminal to welcome home successful fighters.
Remarkable
Taylor will be presented with her boxer of the tournament award at the World Cup in Moscow on December 12, when she will also be presented with the best boxer of 2008 award by the world amateur boxing chiefs, AIBA.
Saturday's victory at the Ningbo Youngor Gymnasium maintains the Irish Amateur Boxing Association's sequence of having won medals at every tournament they have entered this year.
This includes the Olympic Games, the European Championships, the men's and women's EU Championships, the World Youth Championships, the European Schoolboy Championships, and now the Women's World Championships.
Uniquely, Ray Moylett, of the St Anne's club in Westport, won 60kg gold at the World Youth Championships in Mexico earlier last month and now Ireland's only two World champions in any sport are boxers -- and both of them are lightweights.
The win arrived just a few months after Ken Egan was controversially edged out by Chinese light heavyweight Xiaoping Zhang in the Olympic final. The Irish captain was beaten 11-7 by Zhang -- but many pundits believed that the Dubliner had done enough to win, and Taylor admitted that she was nervous about facing a Chinese fighter in China in a major final.
She said: "The Olympic final crossed my mind and I was thinking of Ken Egan as I believe he won that fight and that he should have won the gold medal. I had the feeling that if I got to the final that I would meet the Chinese and that made me nervous, to tell the truth, because of the scoring in the Olympic final.
"But it all worked out fantastic in the end and the final was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Maybe that's some pay-back for Irish boxing after the Olympic final."
However, Taylor, the reigning European and EU lightweight champ, also admitted that she was feeling the weight of expectation in China.
"A lot of people believe that all I have to do is show up and I will win gold. But it is not as easy as that. Women's boxing is very competitive and the standard is rising all the time and absolutely nothing can be taken for granted," she said.
"But Saturday's final was a lot easier than I thought, although I couldn't believe how tall the Chinese girl was, she must have been a foot taller than me. Overall, I am very pleased with my performances, but I was unhappy with the refereeing in my 4-3 win over the Czech Republic boxer in the quarter-finals.
She added: "I thought that the refereeing in that contest was bad, to tell the truth, as I was given a public warning in the third round and I still don't know what it was for."
Meanwhile, Taylor is hoping that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will give women's boxing the green light to become an Olympic sport in 2012. If sanctioned for London, she believes that the Chinese will be out in force.
"They had a great World Championships as they won four or five golds and I thought they deserved their wins also. They are now definitely one of the nations to beat and they will keep improving," she said.
"To represent my country at the Olympic Games would be a dream come through and if I do get the opportunity, I will be going for gold. Hopefully, the IOC will sanction it.
She added: "I would like to dedicate Saturday's victory to my family and to everyone in Irish boxing that has helped and supported me through the years. Saturday was a very proud moment for me. To stand on top of the podium and to hear the Irish national anthem is really special."
The Irish team, which also includes team manager, Anna Moore, coach Peter Taylor, physio Yvonne Ryan and Fionna Hennigan (judge) were due to arrive home to Dublin via Paris just after 8.0 this morning.
- Bernard O'Neill
