Harry Garside’s dreams of winning Australia’s first Olympic boxing gold medal have been ended after a shock loss in his first bout in Paris.
Fifth seed Garside, who was among the medal contenders after winning Bronze in Tokyo, fell to Hungarian Richard Kovacs by unanimous decision on Monday.
The 27-year-old was distraught after the fight, calling himself a “failure” and how he fears for his mental health over the next two months.
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“It is crazy mate. Two decades dedicated to one dream and it is over just like that,” he told Channel Nine.
“I feel pretty numb right now but I am sure that in the next month or two it will be quite a challenge. I fear for my mind gets the better of me, I feel like I’ve let myself down, and let a few people down but what do you do?
“Australia is such a sporting nation and I’m so sorry. Honestly, I feel like a failure right now … I don’t even know what to say.”
When told he should be proud of being a two-time Olympian and not a failure at all, Garside was still upset.
“Thank you so much Australia. It really means a lot. I know sportsmen are supposed to say the right thing right now, and thank you so much, but deep down inside, I fear what the next couple of months look like for myself,” he said.
“I am sure there will be some dark times and I have to prepare for that now.”
After a first-round bye, the fifth-seeded Garside started brightly, bouncing around the ring as he showed off his trademark footwork, and won the first round 3-2.
But the awkward Hungarian, a five-time national champion, tried to antagonise the Australian, coming forward with his hands down and his tongue out.
He got the better of Garside in the second round, scored 5-0, with the Australian unable to land enough scoring shots.
The fifth seed in the 63.5kg division, Garside needed to find something special in the third round but again fell short, with another 5-0 round going to Kovacs.
– With AAP