Boxing: `Beat-ups' by brothers paying dividend now

SUZANNE McFADDEN talks to the only New Zealand boxer who will fight at the Olympic Games in Sydney in September.

In the shed at the back of the Shelford home 20 years ago, Angus was the little boy always in tears.

Angus had three older brothers. One of them, Kelly, grew up to be a talented Kiwi rugby league standoff. They would stage boxing matches with their father's gloves and Angus might as well have been the punchbag.

"I always got a hiding, being the youngest. And I always ended up crying," he said.

"I just couldn't wait to grow up. But the thing is, everyone changes, eh. None of them wants to fight me now."

The grown Angus Shelford is off to the Olympics to fight the big boys.

The Papakura storeman is the only New Zealand boxer who has earned a place in the Olympic team bound for Sydney.

The 23-year-old reckons he owes a lot to those close-knit brothers, whose thrashings in the garage made him tough.

Shelford came from a football family, and played league from the age of five.

But he always wanted to have a proper go at boxing.

"When I was 12, I was boxing for about six months and I really enjoyed it," he said.

"But then I ended up moving to live with my grandparents in Dargaville, and I drifted away from it."

Shelford did not start boxing seriously until he was 17, when a mate took him along to a club in Papakura.

He started fighting in the heavyweight class, but there was something that kept standing in his way.

Or more like someone. He was always pipped at the post by Garth da Silva.

"He was always the difference between me and a gold medal. He beat me every time," Shelford smiles.

"If he wasn't there I knew I would have my gold."

And so it was in 1997, when da Silva was injured and Shelford won gold at the Oceania championships.

When it came to thinking about the 2000 Olympics, Shelford decided it was time to dodge da Silva and step up a weight to the big boys - the super-heavyweights.

"It was a good idea, things have really paid off for me," he said.

The only disadvantage in the jump up is Shelford's height. At 5ft 11in he feels like a midget in the ring fighting opponents of 1.98m (6ft 6in).

Coach John McKay says that what Shelford lacks in stature, he makes up for in speed.

"He's a very strong, tough young fighter who has very quick hands for a super-heavyweight," he said.

"He's relatively short for that weight category, but he's good at countering."

In Canberra this week, Shelford was the only Kiwi from a team of 14 who won his final - a narrow points decision over Australian Alistair Sargeant - and an Olympic ticket.

"It was the right mood for me. But I feel so sorry for the other guys who didn't make it," he said. "They deserved it just as much, maybe more, than I did."

On the final night, Shelford was the last of the Kiwis to fight - and last remaining hope.

"I said to John before I went out, `you're gonna hear our national anthem before the end of the night.'

"There was no way we were going to leave without hearing it."

When Shelford arrived home on Thursday, his first job was to visit his whanau and thank them for their support. He thanked his bosses at Formica, and Tainui for the grant without which he says he would not have gone to Canberra.

There is someone else he has to acknowledge, who has not seen Shelford fight yet. It is his unborn baby - his partner, Renae, is due in November.

"The funny thing when I was in Canberra, I kept thinking about the baby. It was like, jeez, if I win here, then my baby will one day say `my dad was an Olympian.' That was my inspiration."