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IABA:
Sutherland back on the road
By Bernard O'Neill
(JAN 16) Every journey begins with a single step according to an old
Chinese proverb.
Likewise with Irish middleweight Darren Sutherland, who believes that
that the National Senior Championships which begin at the Stadium Dublin
next Friday will be the first step on the road to the Beijing 2008
Olympics.
Around August last year Sutherland, a member of the St Saviours OBA club
in Dublin, decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and he returned to
non contact training regardless of the impending decision of the medical
people.
Sutherland, who is part of the Irish Amateur Boxing Associations High
Performance squad, had received a serious eye injury in a senior
international against Russia at the Stadium in Dublin last summer.
The 24 year old was taken from the Stadium that night to hospital and
underwent an operation soon afterwards
and the immediate diagnosis was not good with some sources predicting he
would never box again.
The date Sutherland picked up the injury was May 12 2006. The opponent
was Danil Sved. And to compound matters he was winning the fight
before it was stopped prematurely
He said: "It was one of those freak punches and I was caught more with
his thumb than with the glove and
that did the damage.
"The weeks after that injury were a horrible time for me and all sorts
of doubts were creeping into my mind
as the medical people were unable to give me a definitive answer to the
injury.
"On top of that my place on the Irish team was taken by Darren O'Neill
and he was doing incredibly well and I was basically out in the cold.
"The European and EU championships just around the corner at the time
and it was one of the lowest points in my career and I had to do a lot
of soul searching.
"But in August last year I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and
I returned to training as I was out of shape both physically and
mentally.
"The way I looked at it was that if they came back and told me I could
resume boxing then I would be fit enough to step straight back into the
ring and thankfully that was the way it worked out".
Sutherland is now looking forward to defending his middleweight title at
the Senior Championships which begin this Friday (January 19)
And the DCU Sports Science student has a lot of sympathy for his Irish
team-mate Darren O'Neill, who has been ruled out of the tournament
through injury.
He added: "I know exactly how Darren feels as the same thing happened to
me last May and he took my place on the Irish team and he did incredibly
well.
"If I had met Darren at the seniors it would have been a great contest
but it's not going to happen now but I will not be taking anything for
granted.
"This is a massive year for us as the Senior Championships are vitally
important as they are the first in a series of tournaments which will
lead to the Olympic qualifiers next September.
Sutherland, who reached the quarter finals of the world championships in
2005, reckons that the talent is there to get at least two boxers on the
plane to Beijing in 2008.
"I look around me at the talent here and I firmly believe that if we get
out heads down and work hard enough
that at least two of us will make it to Olympics, definitely.
"But we must not look to far ahead as the Senior Championships are the
first step on the road to Beijing." |
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