New career for Olympic medallist

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 38

New career for Olympic medallist

By

JOHN COFFEY

Kevin Barry junior, whose international amateur boxing career reached its peak when he sensationally won the light heavyweight silver medal at the 1984 Olympic Games, has turned his energies towards training youngsters in the sport

After giving instructions at his home for some months, Barry yesterday moved into his new base of operations at

the Redwood Hall in Main North Road. He already has a squad of 20, including the former double New Zealand junior champion, Shane Everest, who is to compete as a senior welterweight next season. But Barry said the emphasis was very much on youth. “When it was reported in ‘The Press' late last year that I had retired and planned to become a trainer, a couple of young boys banged on my door and asked me to

teach them how to box,” said Barry yesterday.

“I hadn’t intended to start until after Christmas, but I told them to come back the next day. Not only were they there, but they had some mates with them,” he said. Barry is being assisted at the Redwood gymnasium by his younger brother, Tim. Although the former boxer-trainer link has been broken, Barry is still associated with his father and former trainer, Kevin Barry

senior. The rules of boxing require a new trainer to spend 12 months under the supervision of a qualified person while serving his “time” for his own trainer’s licence. Kevin Barry senior, who will train the New Zealand team at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh later this year, next week transfers his training facilities to the Parkview School hall in Parklands.

The Barrys, father and sons, have been encouraged by the co-

operation received from the Waimairi District Council. They themselves have made a time-con-suming commitment — the Parklands gymnasium will be operating on four week-day evenings and Sunday mornings, and the Redwood gymnasium on three evenings and Sunday mornings. Rather than adopt his father’s methods, Kevin Barry junior is seeking a training style of his own, drawing upon the experience which he accumulated while winning an

Olympic Games silver, Commonwealth Games bronze and a host of other medals and titles.

“My style will be individual, but not the way that I boxed. I want to put into practice the thoughts I have developed over 17 years of boxing.

“I will be placing special emphasis on defence, to make sure all my boys learn how to protect themselves before they fight That is

not always the case,” he said.

“My reason for starting out with youngsters is to develop a nucleus for the gymnasium. Some are only eight or nine years old and I have to keep them interested because they are not allowed to box until they are 10. “If I can hold the squad together for four or five years I will have a really good gymnasium. Today’s kids are tomorrow’s champions,” said Barry.