THE Great Britain gold medal tally, it turned out, had stopped spinning the night before Amir Khan stepped into the ring yesterday. It should have come as no great surprise that a 17-year-old with 13 senior contests to his name should fall short against a 33-year-old world and Olympic champion who has not been beaten since 1999, but these are the Olympics. They allow the most audacious of dreams to take hold and Khan’s was one that came astonishingly close to fulfilment.
Khan fought proudly and stubbornly against Mario Kindelán, the Cuban who is rated by some as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, and though he lost 30-22, he ensured that Britain’s Games account was closed in considerable style.
Kindelán gave the boxing hall an exhibition in the art that entirely justified his reputation. Khan had led after one round and though he went irretrievably behind in rounds two and three, he had sufficient faith in his skills to come back fiercely in the final, rousing two minutes in search of a knockout. So impressive was he that Evander Holyfield, the former world heavyweight champion, sought him out afterwards, rested one of his large paws on his shoulder and told him that, for a teenager, it had been a “brilliant performance”.
Kindelán certainly had respect for him, too. Later, as they stood on the podium awaiting their medals, he turned to the youngster from Bolton and told him that, if he sticks around in the amateur game, he will be the next world and Olympic champion.
The prediction will be easier to fulfil now that Kindelán himself is out of the way. Yesterday was the Cuban’s last bout. He will never turn professional — that is not the way in his homeland — and that also goes a long way to explaining why Cuba was represented in seven of the 11 boxing finals, winning five of them.
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Kindelán’s prediction is probably threatened most by the lure of the professional game. Khan, however, insisted after taking the silver medal yesterday that his future remained among the unpaid ranks. “I want to stay amateur until I’m 22,” he said. “I’ll be more mature, stronger, and hopefully I’ll win the next Olympics.”
He certainly came close to winning this one. He dominated the centre of the ring, tracking the elusive Cuban, who would lean away beautifully from his lightning punches.
The first round was cagey, Khan counter-punching well, but Kindelán still appeared to be sizing up his opponent. It was thereafter that Kindelán showed his class. He snapped a left hand flush into Khan’s face, clearly startling him, but though the Briton was not put off, his defences were being exposed and he struggled to land punches of his own.
From 4-3 down after the first round, Kindelán outscored Khan 19-10 in the next two, demanding an unremitting, all-out response from Khan in the fourth.
With every bout that Khan has contested here, the superlatives have come tumbling, but though he was fighting a losing battle, he only deserved more for the way that he went after the awesome Cuban in that last round. After a studied, scientific encounter for three rounds, Khan turned it into a scrap, driving forwards in a determined quest for the punch that might change the contest.
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He succeeded in landing some impressive blows, but Kindelán is made of such stuff that can withstand them. He and Khan shared that last, exciting round with eight points apiece and victory was the older man’s.
In the immediate aftermath, Khan looked shaken to the point of tears, but, once he had got that silver medal around his neck, he seemed to understand that his achievements had drawn nothing but admiration. “I’m just happy to have got to the finals,” he said. “These two weeks have been such an experience.”
Terry Edwards, the Britain coach, was once again searching desperately for words with which to bestow sufficient acclaim. He exhibited Khan’s record, which showed that the youngster had now boxed 14 times at senior level and nearly become Olympic champion. “Work that out for yourselves,” he crowed rhetorically.
There have been plenty of people who have been working out the sums since Khan first entered the ring here 14 days ago and they add up to a very merry figure. Khan, it seems, will not take the cash, though lottery money and endorsements should ensure that he will be well looked after through to the 2008 Games in Beijing. His immediate concerns are to make up lost ground in his sports development course at Bolton Community College. He has some assignments to catch up on, he said, and he wants to pass his driving test.
He will return a local hero. He is already being described as a role model in the Asian community and he will certainly be paraded as one within domestic amateur boxing, for which this advertisement has come as a godsend. That is an awful lot to deal with for a 17-year-old who just wants to get rid of his L-plates. The temperament he has shown these past two weeks, however, suggests that coping might not be such a problem.