Community Voice Exclusive Interview

Olympian Sutherland sets sight on bringing Boxing Gold to Dublin 15
by Mark O’Toole

After the controversial Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing concludes on the 8th August, the talk will turn to Ireland’s main chances of medal glory at the twenty-ninth Olympiad and inevitably Dublin 15 native, and middleweight boxer, Darren Sutherland will feature.

Aiming to follow in the footsteps of luminaries like Michael Carruth and Wayne McCullough, to name a few, in Ireland’s most successful event at the Olympics is a hard ask but Community Voice found Darren in fighting form.

Training on a hazy summer morning, less than a week after defending his EU Championship in Poland, Darren was concluding the last of his media work before starting intensive training programme with his four fellow Olympic boxing qualifiers Paddy Barnes, Kenny Egan, John Joe Joyce and John Joe Nevin.

Darren Sutherland was born in Dublin but his early life was a story of constant upheaval between moving to London when he was 7 years of age and also spending time in the Caribbean - his father being a native of the small island of St Vincent. However the Sutherland clan soon returned to the land of Darren’s birth and to Mulhuddart.

The young suburbs of Dublin 15 were expanding incrementally in the 90s and Darren who was eleven at the time of his family’s return remembers feeling - like many during the zenith of the turbulent days of the Celtic Tiger - a sense of displacement perhaps only increased by his family’s global travelling.

“It was a strange experience for me returning - I didn’t grow up in the area to that point, I was one of the few mixed race kids in the area at the time also though I never experienced any racism or anything like that. I went to sixth class in Ladyswell before moving to Riversdale in Corduff for secondary school” recollects Darren. “I never got into trouble, I got a reputation for being that lad that was into his training.”

Shortly after his Junior Certificate, Darren - who took up boxing ‘late’ at the age of 15 in St. Brigid’s in Blanchardstown - had his natural talent scouted by famed trainer and Sheffield-based, Dublin-native Brendan Ingle. Sutherland uprooted again and went to train with him.

As a young adolescent he found the harsh discipline very tough and four years after sitting the Junior Certificate, Darren decided to return to complete his education. “I needed to go back to school and I went to Dunboyne, I was an older kid but decided to keep my head down and I got good grades.”

Darren’s grades were so good that he has since enrolled in DCU’s highly regarded sports science undergraduate degree. Indeed, the only time this year when Sutherland hasn’t been gearing up for the Olympics, was after accomplishing qualification in Athens when he took a ‘break’ for his final examinations in April.

Prior to this year and what may well be the culmination of his amateur boxing career, Sutherland did have a rocky relationship with his sport. “I took a year out a couple of years ago. I had fallen out of love with boxing. I felt I didn’t have a life and it was kind of tough. However after that break things took off again in 2005 and I was drafted into the Irish team.”

Multiple successes with the national team followed and this Irish squad heads to China as the largest ever in Ireland’s most successful Olympic event. The country is ranked second only to France in Europe - a country with a population sixteen times greater than ours - in terms of its amateur credentials.

Big things are expected from the squad, in particular from Ken Egan and Sutherland. Sutherland is confident but is under no illusions regarding the task facing him at the Olympics. “Olympic gold is the pinnacle of sports achievement and everyone remembers what Carruth and McCullough did in 1992. We’re going there with the highest amount of qualifications ever, which is a good omen” says Sutherland.

“There is a lot of expectation from the public, which is a lot of weight to carry on our shoulders. But we’re a confident squad. Our mentality is that we’re not just going there to make up the numbers – we will try to win and it is a realistic expectation that we can do something. It is an open draw that can’t be controlled you could immediately up against the best in the world but we will take it one match at a time’ he says.

Listening to the softly-spoken middleweight it is noticeable that there is an impressive emphasis on the team ethic but boxing is, after all, an individual sport and Sutherland is very candid about his own chances. “I’m number eight in the world rankings and third in Europe so I probably am one of the ones to beat. But I will need take it one hundred per cent and one match at a time.

The Irish squad is very youthful with Darren and Ken Egan the elder statesmen at 26 years of age while the remainder are 19 or under. The Olympics have been a launch-pad for many boxers to go on to a world stage, for instance, Messrs. Clay, Mayweather, McCullough and more recently Andy Lee and Amir Khan taking the professional route.

Although concentrating on the Olympics and a ten-day training camp in Russia which began on the 23rd July, Darren has been taking notice of the healthy state of professional Irish boxing with Bernard Dunne, Andy Lee, John Duddy, Matthew Macklin and Paul McCloskey all big draws in the country the moment.

Sutherland exclusively revealed to Community Voice that he is going to go professional in the near future following the Olympics. “I’d regret it if I didn’t give it a crack. I’ve had a lot of offers but I’m going to wait until after the Olympics to decide who to go with.”

Sutherland also makes the point that his style is more suited to professional boxing and similar to those boxers he has admired since childhood like Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Steve Collins, being more of a ‘power puncher.’

For the time being representing Dublin 15 and Ireland means a lot to Darren. “I’m very proud. Growing up I didn’t have a place to call home and have only felt recently that this is my true home. In a way I’m the new face of Ireland as I’m mixed race and my accent is a bit everywhere but there is no better feeling than winning and looking up at the Irish flag being raised.”

Just before he concludes the interview and returns to an exhausting training programme he adds “I hope everyone gets behind the lads, it’s not going to be easy but with a bit of support we can do something.”

No doubt there will be many a punter in the pubs and family on a sofa watching Beijing 2008 that will be giving him exactly that when the first bell rings.

 

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