SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 13 : IRISH EYES WERE VERY RED

Those who have attended every session of the Olympic boxing tournament agreed that Thursday’s bantamweight semifinal bout between Irishman Wayne McCullough and North Korean Li Gwang Sik might have been the most exciting match of the tournament.

McCullough won a 21-16 decision in a bout that saw both sluggers throwing bombs at each other--and landing most of them--from first to last

bell.

They had the Joventut Pavilion jumping.

But imagine what it was like in Ireland, in the pubs.

One jubilant spectator was Pat Hickey, head of the Irish Olympic team, who sat in the festive Irish cheering section.

In a rich brogue, he had this comment: “There were slashing rains in Ireland today, so most people watched the bout in the pubs. They won’t be going back to work today.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Baltimore Sun, all Times-Mirror newspapers.