Boxing: Barker jabs to gold in old-fashioned way

Light-welterweight Londoner makes his moves in classic fashion as he progresses to England's first title

Darren Barker, a tall, stylish light-welterweight from London, became the first English boxer to strike gold as the Commonwealth Games boxing finals got under way at a packed MEN Arena here yesterday – and he did it in the old-fashioned way.

When in doubt jab and move is the classic pugilistic advice. Barker did that to perfection which, with his upright stance, confounded his Ugandan opponent, Mohammed Kayongo, and brought the 20-year-old decorator an 18-14 points victory. It was a sweet success for one of the most underrated members of the England team and Barker, whose father Terry is a former ABA champion, has promised to stay amateur until the next Olympics. "Winning here was great but for me an Olympic gold medal is the one big thing in my life now,'' he said.

Barker kept his cool against an awkward southpaw to win convincingly in the end although, self-deprecatingly, he felt he could have performed better. "This was a below-par performance from me,'' he said, but it was good enough for gold.

A gold too went to the Cwmbran scaffolder, Jamie Arthur, the first Welshman to win a Commonwealth Games title since the late Howard Winston in 1958. Lightweight, Arthur, 22, was understandably knocked out by this, though fortunately not by his Zambian opponent Dennis Zimba. In another closely fought contest Arthur won by two points, 37-35.

Arthur survived the bloody nose syndrome – the referee twice wiping away blood when the Welshman must have feared that he might be about to suffer the same fate as super-heavyweight Kevin Evans who was stopped with a slight nose bleed when ahead against England's David Dolan in the semi-final. "Howard was a great man. I don't think I can fill his shoes but if I can follow in his footsteps I'll be happy,'' Arthur said.

Three other England fighters had to settle for silver. Liverpool light-middleweight Paul Smith was beaten, not unexpectedly, by the Canadian Jean Pascal on a narrow 18-16 verdict. However, he put up a sterling performance against an opponent who has been touted as the "tastiest'' in the tournament and occasionally made the loose-limbed Pascal look clumsy rather than classy.

Defeat came too, somewhat unexpectedly, for the Liverpool middle-weight Steven Birch against the Australian southpaw Paul Miller. After a tepid opening, Miller paid the penalty for failing to step up the pace in the fourth and final round which had begun at 11-11. He fell behind, eventually losing 20-14, much to the surprise of the England camp who thought that, of the five men left in the finals, he was the banker for gold.

The London light-flyweight Darran Langley also came off second best in the opening bout of the tournament but at least he had the consolation of being beaten by Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali Qatar that is, an Indian who had clearly mastered the art of picking his punches in the manner of the great man. Under the new computer scoring system, amateur boxing has virtually become fencing with fists and although the 20-year-old Langley did his share of sabre rattling it was the stabbing left of Qatar which brought about yet another two-points margin of victory, 27-25.

The familiar chant of "Ali! Ali!" from the Indian fans spurred on Qatar and both boxers survived standing counts. "I was too negative'' admitted Langley whose preparations had been hampered first by an ankle injury and then, this week, by a bout of tonsillitis. "I've fought this guy before and he beat me then. He's very good, probably the best in the world''. Well, with a name like Mohammad Ali...

As far as England's well-grilled squad were concerned it was the journeymen rather than the stars who had their day in the sun, or rather the ring. None of the quintet who survived to the finals were headline-makers in the manner of heavyweight David Haye whose games lasted just over a couple of minutes. He quit the tournament after winning his first bout when he suffered an injury to what he had hoped would be his golden arm. He broke camp to see a London consultant, thereby upsetting the team management though not, it was said, the team's equilibrium.

So no hay-makers yesterday and no Wythenshawe warrior, either. The local lightweight Andy Morris, the boxer with the biggest support here, had his dream of winning gold before his army of fans dashed after a frustrating semi-final defeat. It was his fourth tough contest in five days and the 29-year-old tree surgeon had his disappointment shared by the team captain, featherweight Stevie Bell, a would-be actor from Manchester who forgot his lines of defence against a classy Canadian.

The loss of Morris and Bell was as much of a blow to the England team as the absence of Haye and for the reigning Games champion, the light-heavyweight Courtney Fry, defeated in the quarter-finals. It meant coach Ian Erwin's hopes of achieving his promised target of eight medals, a figure he had set to ensure continued Lottery support, fell short.