Boxing: Da Silva knocked out of Games

By PETER JESSUP

Heavyweight boxer Garth da Silva's Olympic hopes are dead after keeping to a gentleman's agreement cost him a vital fight at the Oceania championships in Canberra.

Da Silva had dedicated the last four years of his life to the Sydney Games and was shattered by the countback points decision that chopped him down after he flattened his Samoan opponent twice during the bout.

He was the most favoured of a 14-strong Kiwi team that got badly beaten up in Canberra, with only heavyweight Angus Shelford qualifying for Sydney. But Shelford's chances are not good in a division stacked with European and Cuban talent.

Da Silva thought he had won late on Tuesday night.

He raised his arms in triumph at the end as the ref held both boxers' hands, then suffered the ignominy of having the ref raise Pauga Lalau's arm as the winner.

The scores were tied 18-all. The rules then dictated the five judges' highest and lowest scores were dropped, producing the wrong result for the 26-year-old from Christchurch.

The judging panel comprised two Australians, one Western Samoan, one American Samoan and one New Zealander, Bob Lyall.

Lyall said later that his score was not the highest or the lowest.

Da Silva raised his arm again, this time to point angrily into the crowd, obviously upset he had not been kept informed where he stood points-wise.

It is the second time da Silva has been cheated by a breach of the gentleman's agreement - regarding the relay of computer scores to fighters from the public arena - the first being a shot at the gold in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

The computer scores every hit, hard or not. Regulations state that the fighters are not to be told of the progressive scores as they are flashed on television screens facing four ways out from the ring above their heads.

The reality is that every team in Kuala Lumpur had a team member in the stands relaying that information, except the Kiwis, who stood by gentlemen's rules.

The result was that da Silva, ahead after two rounds of his semifinal, thought he was behind and went after a bigger opponent with a longer reach, and was jabbed a sufficient number of times to give the fight to his opponent from the Seychelles.

The New Zealand Boxing Association will hold a post-mortem given the failure to secure any more than Shelford's spot.

Initial reaction from spokesman Barry Leabourn was that "we saw the might of the Australian sports steamroller."

He cited the Aussies' fulltime coach bought in from Germany, access to unlimited overseas competition and the Canberra-based Australian Institute of Sport.

Added to this was that it was only in March that the local body could afford a computer scoring system, that most of the Kiwi team had not competed under the system, and da Silva had not fought under it lately.

"We try to run our sport on the smell of an oily rag and we got rolled flat by the might of the Australian win-at-all-costs approach. I'm not making excuses - their way is the way we should be going."

Of 12 Olympic spots open to Oceania qualifiers, Australia grabbed 10 and Samoa and New Zealand one each.

Da Silva's mum, Beryl, took a phone call from her son at 1 am yesterday.

"It was not a happy call," she said.

"You can't print what he said. We were both pretty depressed ... he's just shattered."

Her son had knocked out his first two opponents and believed he had the gold medal after the Samoan twice took a standing-eight count.

"He's given up so much and the Olympic gold was always his aim. He's been broke, we sold raffles to get him to Atlanta. He's dedicated his life to this and now it's gone. I don't know what he'll do."

Another who saw his Games aspirations vanish was talented lightweight Ramil Abubot, who "ran out of petrol" when leading Australian Michael Katsidis after three rounds of their final. Two long bouts over the previous three days caught up with Abubot, who was stopped in the fourth round.

Welterweight Daniel Codling put up a brave fight before losing narrowly to highly rated Australian Daniel Geale. The 20-year-old Aucklander went down 10-13 on points.

Shelford, who won a narrow points decision over Australian Alistair Sargeant in the over-91kg division, had stepped up to super-heavyweight after several battles with da Silva in the under-91kg division, with the latter always winning. The 23-year-old Aucklander is not rated a Sydney medal chance.

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