István Kovács celebrates l’Oro di Atlanta 1996 – da:tvmnews.mt
Article by Giovanni Manenti
If one examines the Olympic medal holder relating only to Boxing, you can consider that Hungary is one of the leading nations in this disciplinegiven that it ranks in seventh position with a total of 20 laurels, of which 10 gold, two silver and 8 bronze…
But, on a more careful reading of it we realize that, first of all, three of the aforementioned statements come from just one athlete, namely “legendary” Laszlo Pappcapable of establishing himself in the Middleweight and Superwelterweight categories in three consecutive editions (London 1948, Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956) of the Games.
It should also be noted that seeing a Hungarian boxer climb to the top step of an Olympic Podium began at the 1928 Amsterdam Games with flyweight Antal Kocsisand then continued four years later with Istvan Enekes still among the Moscas and therefore with the success of Lightweight Imre Harangi in 1936 in Berlin…
Series of statements that does not stop when activity resumes at the end of the Second World War, when – in addition to the already mentioned Papp – they conquered the Also Gold Medal Tibor Csik in the Bantamweight in London 1948 and Gyula Torok in the Moscow in 1960 a Roma.
An uninterrupted streak in which Boxing brought at least one Gold to Hungary which was interrupted until the triumph of Gyotgy Gedo among the Minimosca in 1972 in Monaco, and then remain without affirmations in the following twenty years, a period that sees the Magyar boxers won just two bronzes in Moscow 1980 – favored by the boycott of the United States first and foremost – ed a third at the 1988 Seoul Games con il Minimosca Robert Isaszegi …
A rather embarrassing situation for the Hungarian Federation which, moreover, has good hopes of reversing the trend in view of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic event on the protagonist of our history today, destined, to this day, to remain the last exponent of his country to win a Gold Medal in Boxing.
Born on 17 August 1970 in Budapest, Istvan Kovacs he initially dedicated himself to football, joining the MTK youth sector, except “turn 360 degrees” to get into the ring when he had already turned 16, also demonstrating a natural familiarity with “Noble Art”, enough to graduate Continental Champion at the 1988 Junior Exhibition in Gdansk in the flyweight category…
This affirmation does not remain isolated, so much so that Kovacs stands out in his homeland by surpassing the Olympic medalists Janos Varadi and the aforementioned Isassegi, thus earning the selection for the 1990 World Cup scheduled in Dublin where he was defeated only in the Final.
The “Season of consecration” for Kovacs comes the following year, when won on 12 May 1991 at the European Championships in Gothenburg getting the better of the German Mario Loch in the Final, and then moving up a level during the World Championships in mid-November in Sydney, obtaining a similar result by overcoming the North Korean Choi Chol-Su in the Final (25-15)for what is also the only Hungarian medal in the Tournament…
With such a “business card“, it is therefore logical that the greatest expectations in the Hungarian house fall on the not yet 22 year old Istvan when on 27 July 1992 the Boxing Tournament began in the ring ofJuventut Club Pavilion” di Badalona, being registered in the flyweight category up to 51 kilograms.
After easy debut with the Indian Dharmendra Yafavclearly defeated (21-5) on points, the Hungarian returns to the square to face the Dane Jesper Jensen for a statement, if we want, even more clear, given that the Scandinavian boxer fails to score (14-0) any valid points, thus qualifying for the Quarterfinals, from which Loch is excluded, defeated on points (9-4) by the Venezuelan David Serradas…
South American whose path ends when it is the opposite on August 4th to the Cuban Raul Gonzalez who won with ease (24-7), meanwhile American Tim Austin also advances to the semifinalswho gets rid of (19-8) the Tanzanian Benjamin Mwangata, ed the aforementioned Choi, also without problems (25-11) over the Australian Robbie Peden.
Only Kovacs remains, who completes the table of semi-finalists prevailing (17-3) over Hector Avila of the Dominican Republic, all results which can only reiterate that the strongest boxers in the Category have entered the Medal Zone without a doubt…
So meet up at August 7, 1992, with Gonzalez and Austin the first to enter the square, but the Cuban didn’t have to make too much effort to gain access to the final act, given that the referee stops the fight after just 1’04” of the first round due to a headbutt inflicted by the boxer from Ohio, so that all the anticipation spills over into the “revenge” of the World Championship Final of the previous year.
This time a North Korean Choi prevailed, winning (10-5) on pointsthus seeing the possibility of bringing the Olympic gold back to his country vanish for Kovacs, while Choi, obviously anything but an outsider, manages to grasp “the opportunity of a lifetime” con a success supported by a perhaps unexpected gap (12-2). on the eve of the match…
The outcome of the Olympic Tournament represents a great disappointment both for Kovacs and for his numerous fans, fascinated by his style and beautiful personality, capable of “bewitch” even the media, a circumstance that leads him to close relationships with his long-time coach Gyula Bodis and relying on the care of Imre Szanto, who convinces him to move up a category to Bantamweighthowever not going beyond winning the bronze at the 1993 Continental Review held in Bursa.
“From rags to riches“, it is precisely in case of saying and, as often happens in these situations, there is no shortage of voices accusing the boxer of having given himself to “good life”, in addition to having personal problems, already launching the “of profundis” with respect to the possibilities of returning at the highest levels…
And, to silence evil tongues and detractors, there is only one possibility, that is to return to winning, and the now 25-year-old Istvan knows this all too well, needing a “injection of confidence” in view of the Olympic event in Atlanta 1996a boost that promptly arrives thanks to the affirmation at the beginning of April of the European Championships in Vejle, where he took the Bantamweight title by beating the Russian Raimkul Malakhbekov in the finalor the reigning World Champion by virtue of the title won the previous year in Berlin.
Despite this feat, Kovacs is not seen as a possible contender for the Gold Medal when on 20 July 1996 the Boxing Tournament began in the ring ofAlexander Memorial Coliseum” of the capital of Georgiawith the Hungarian making a positive debut with an easy victory on points (15-3) over the Turkish Soner Karagoz, quite the opposite of the Bulgarian Alexandr Hristov (silver in Seoul 1988 and World Champion 1993), eliminated (9-3) by the Venezuelan Carlos Barreto…
Once one of the medal contenders left the scene, Kovacs’ physical condition improved match after match, eliminating him in the second round (17-3) the representative of Tajikistan Hasanov and then gained access to the semi-finals with an embarrassing (for the opponent…) victory per 24-2 Romanian winger Crinu Raicu.
Stadium of the Tournament for which they also qualify the Cuban Arnaldo Mesa (15-8 on the French Rachid Bouaita…), the Thai Vichai Khadpo che elimina (13-4) il marocchino Hicham Nafil ed the already mentioned Malakhbekoveasily won (21-9) over the Mongolian Davaatseren…
The first to enter the ring for the semi-finals on August 1st are the Cuban and the Russian, who give life to a very balanced match which at the bell of the third round sees the two boxers obtained the same score of 14-14, so that the preference that the Japanese referee Ryozo Sakai assigns to Mesa is decisive.
The second match of the day was certainly less competitive Kovacs wins quite easily (12-7) over his Thai rivalso as to see a Hungarian boxer return to compete in a Gold Final 24 years after the last opportunity…
Furthermore, the Caribbean adversary is one of those “take with a grain of salt”, since you At the 1991 World Cup in Sydney he was the protagonist of an attempted brawl against the referee and judges for having been awarded a penalty during his semi-final match and, a year later in view of the Barcelona Games, his name was excluded from the list of participants for having attacked a teammate of team in training.
This time Mesa behaves correctly and, after a first round of study, with the Hungarian taking a minimal advantage (2-0), here Kovacs mortgages the Gold Medal in the second round, dominated 9-4, and then limits himself to managing the margin in his favor in the third and final round, giving his country (14-7) a long-awaited Gold…
This also allowed Kovacs to “far pace” with his fans, scoring a further point in his favor when he refused substantial offers to go professional since the following year the World Championships were held in Budapest, a review which saw him win the world title having also moved up in category, fighting among the Featherweights.
To understand how much impact Kovacs’s exploits had on public opinion and the Hungarian media, he was elected “Hungarian Sportsman of the Year” both in 1991 and 1996, and then, finally, deciding to try his luck among the Professionals after an Amateur career with a record of 282 wins, one draw and just 14 defeats…
The problem, for Hungarian Boxing, is that since then the medal collection has increased by only one paltry bronze won by Middleweight Zsolt Erdei ai “Games at the end of the Millennium” in Sydney 2000.
How to say “After me the flood…“, taking as reference the famous phrase of Louis XV of France…
2024-03-23 20:12:42
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