Boxing: Pownceby sidesteps waiting media at airport to train in Tahiti

By ANGELA GREGORY

Soulan Pownceby managed to avoid media attention at Auckland International Airport where he caught a 4pm flight to Tahiti.

Some media had been at the airport since 10.30am to interview the reserved boxer who has refused to front up to the public but for a television interview late on Tuesday night where he broke down in tears.

About half an hour before the flight was due to depart the Herald rang Pownceby from the Air New Zealand check-in point and a man who answered his cellphone promptly hung up on hearing it was a newspaper.

Moments later someone text-messaged the Herald "he's gone thru".

While Pownceby managed to run from the cameras he hasn't been able to hide from the publicity his selection has whipped up.

The story was picked up by dozens of papers in the United States including the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.

A similar controversy had erupted in the United States over the sending to the Olympics of an American synchronised swimmer who is facing jail for vehicular manslaughter.

Tammy Crow was charged over the deaths of her boyfriend and a 12-year-old boy after the car she was driving skidded off an icy road and crashed. Crow had been drinking the previous night and witnesses said she was speeding.

She was sentenced to 90 days jail and three years probation but the judge postponed her sentence to let her compete at Athens.