Boxing: Boxers cling on to amateur ideals

It is possible that England's two gold medal winners from Saturday night's fi-nals will remain amateur and, with the correct amount of funding, go close to repeating their success at the Athens Olympics in two years' time. It is possible, but unlikely.

There is a now-familiar ritual after every major amateur boxing tournament that involves a weary-eyed Ian Irwin, England's national coach and Britain's Olympic coach, emerging from the changing room to plead for his boxers. His plea is simple and has been so for nearly 20 years: "I wish the professionals would leave our boxers alone."

On Saturday night, five young English boxers took part in the finals, which were a disappointment compared to some of the excellent sessions that preceded them. The three who failed to win gold were all 19 and all lost to veterans of last year's World Championships in Belfast.

Irwin said: "Last year, a very strong team was coming together, but we have lost three of them and a few others that could have featured at these games."

He could also have mentioned his star-struck heavyweight David Haye, who pulled out with a torn bicep, or his defending champion Courtney Fry at light-heavyweight, who was a disappointment and exited early.

The winners were Repton's impossibly young-looking Dar-ren Barker at light-welterweight, who boxed simply and precisely to tame Uganda's Mohammed Kayongo 18-14, a score that failed to reflect the dominance of the young Londoner.

When his bout was over and 20-year-old Barker had torn himself away from his sobbing parents, he vowed to remain in the unpaid ranks and stick with Irwin until Athens.

"This was part one of the golden dream for me and a gold in Athens is what I'm really after," he said.

In the final bout of the night, England's super-heavyweight David Dolan, from the Plains Farm Club in Sunderland, was somehow able to do as he pleased with Canada's David Cadieux. Dolan, 22, was much smaller, but the towering Canadian had a very limited knowledge of ring skills and Dolan is an expert operator. Sadly, he appears to lack the punch that would make him a major attraction as a professional, but has also pledged his allegiance to Irwin and will remain amateur until Athens.

The first of England's losers was Darran Langley at light-flyweight, who had nothing in reserve when India's Muhammad Ali Qamar finally broke into a sweat in round three and took control.

Qamar is world class and Langley could be, but he must decide between life as a postman and occasional funding, and decent offers from professional promoters, who know that the south Londoner will sell tickets.

The loser at middleweight was Steven Birch, who should have done better because the man who beat him, Paul Miller, from Australia, is extremely predictable.

In his first season as a full-blown middleweight, Birch lost 20-14, but has the style to succeed at amateur level.

Luck and stamina ran out after four bouts for Paul Smith in the light-middleweight final against Canada's Jean Pascal. Smith was able to confuse Pascal, but in the end went down 18-16 in what was his fifth fight in eight days.

Jamie Arthur overcame a gash on his nose to out-point Zambia's Dennis Zimba 37-35 and win the first boxing gold medal for Wales in 44 years.

In Athens, Irwin will, in theory, have Arthur to select – and perhaps he will be the one that, against all the odds, gives Irwin the one medal he has predicted.