2004 Olympics: Other Sports

Light heavyweight Ward pursues first American boxing gold medal since 1996

08:02 PM CDT on Friday, August 27, 2004

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

ATHENS, Greece – Who knows what secret signals Olympic boxing teams use to relay scoring to the ring.

Scratching an ear? A cough? A finger across the schnozz like Paul Newman used in The Sting?

Whatever covert semaphores the United States uses, they went haywire Friday night and almost cost the country its only shot at a boxing gold medal. Light heavyweight Andre Ward rose above the miscommunication and edged Uzbekistan's Utkirbek Haydarov to advance to Sunday's gold-medal bout.

The other American in the semifinals, middleweight Andre Dirrell, lost to Kazakhstan's Gennadiy Golovkin during the afternoon session.

Going into the weekend finals, Cuba has again established itself as the world's boxing power. Seven Cubans will fight in the finals, with Russia next with three.

Ward watched Dirrell's fight on television and realized he would be the last hope to win the first U.S. boxing gold since 1996.

"It did hit me," said the 20-year-old from Oakland, Calif. "I did feel the load."

Ward went into the fourth and final round of his fight tied, 13-13. This he knew because assistant coach Joe Zanders informed him it was "all even."

Head coach Basheer Abdullah, though, was under the impression his fighter was going into the final round protecting a lead and coached him with that in mind. He wouldn't specify why he thought that.

"We have our ways," he said. "I need to fire someone.

"Everybody gets the scores. I don't know why they don't just post 'em up. Bring the scores to the corner."

As the clock moved under 20 seconds, the bout was still tied, 15-15. With 15 seconds left, Ward tagged Haydarov, 30, with a left hook to the head to take a one-point lead. He managed to keep his distance the rest of the way and added another point with a connection with five seconds left.

Dirrell, who looked so impressive in his previous fights, didn't enjoy the same fate. He failed to establish his jab and, after the first round, left himself open to punches and spent the balance of the bout playing catch-up.

He and Abdullah said they thought Dirrell, who beat the 22-year-old Golovkin last year during a U.S.-Kazakhstan dual competition, should have won.

"From where I was sitting, I thought we did enough to get the victory," Abdullah said. "Andre wasn't as sharp as I anticipated."

"There's nothing I can do about it," said Dirrell, a 20-year-old from Flint, Mich. "I accept the bronze. I take it back to the USA proudly."

In Olympic boxing, semifinal losers receive bronze medals.

Ward, meanwhile, will face 26-year-old Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus, who finished second at the 2003 world championships.

Said Ward: "I really believe I'm going to get this gold medal, not to be boastful."

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com