BOXING:KATIE TAYLOR'S father and coach Peter spoke of his dismay yesterday at the lack of television airtime the world and European champion gets with the national broadcaster.
Taylor won her fifth consecutive European title in Rotterdam last month when she beat Russia’s two-time world champion Sofya Ochigava 10-5, but the only place for fans to see the bout was online.
The same was the case in Barbados when she claimed her third world title in 2010, though RTÉ did offer deferred coverage.
Peter Taylor has contrasted this with the men’s World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, earlier in October when a late decision was made by RTÉ to show John Joe Nevin’s semi-final against Luke Campbell live on a Friday morning. “You’ve won three world titles and you’ve four or five European titles and they don’t show the fights live, but they show the men’s European Championships live and men’s World Championships live.
“And if it was athletics they’d show them live. But they don’t show a person from Ireland who has won three world title and five Europeans? Their excuse is they haven’t budgeted for it. She’s always in with a chance and Rotterdam’s not a million miles away. It’s broadcasted all over Europe and when you get to the final, how much does it cost to get a camera out there?
“It was the same when she was in the final of the World Championships. You’d think when you have an Irish athlete in the World Championships, we don’t have many . . . you’d think it would be a good news story and they’d be delighted to show it.”
Taylor says when they arrive home from tournaments he is regularly quizzed by fans as to why they cannot see Katie’s fights live, and he is always at a loss for an answer.
“It’s not just me cribbing about it. For me it doesn’t make a difference, we don’t know who’s there at the time, we’re just concentrating on boxing, but when you come back and people are saying (they couldn’t see it), it kind of does touch on you.
“Is it because it’s a female sport? I don’t know. They showed the World Championship final, but two or three hours after she won. They said the quality wasn’t great but it was good enough to show two hours later.” He added: “I just think people are beginning to find it very annoying. They put all these reality TV things on and we have someone boxing for a world or European title and they don’t put it on the TV.”
Taylor was speaking on the day Katie announced a sponsorship deal under the ‘Sky Sports Scholarships’ programme, which eclipses any other deal she has agreed to date. Her Irish Sports Council funding amounts to €40,000 for 2011, and while that is a huge help, Sky’s arrival on the scene means there will be no financial worries in the run-up to London 2012, which she has yet to qualify for.
“It’s a great sponsorship deal, it’s a superb deal,” said Peter yesterday. “It’s great a British company coming in to support her like that as well, because there are so many GB athletes they could have supported.”
There are a few requirements of Katie in the deal, but nothing out of the ordinary, though she will be given “mentoring support” by news presenter, former Assets model and Dubliner Rachel Wyse, according to the broadcaster.
“I think that is just to make sure they are familiar with that Sky interviewer,” says her dad. “She doesn’t have a mentor anyway, we do our own thing.”
Talyor’s only chance of qualification will come in Qinhuangdao, China, where she heads to compete between May 21st and June 3rd. Neither she nor her father is taking anything for granted.
“People think it’s a foregone conclusion getting to the Olympic Games, but getting there is the hard part, when you get there you have a good chance (against 12 qualifiers). Qinhuangdao is the only chance she has, it’s mad isn’t it? And you could be sick before you get there, you get your nose broken in sparring or you could have a bad day too.”
While he has every faith in his protégé and their meticulous preparation that has never let them down before, he insists, if she doesn’t qualify, “nobody can take away what she has done up to now”.
Also among the 11 athletes receiving Sky funding is former Westmeath under-21 footballer and 2010 Paracycling World Champion Mark Rohan. This year has also been hugely successful for Rohan, who made history when winning six World Cup golds in a row en route to winning the 2011 UCI Paracycling Road World Cup in Canada.
