OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Boxing: Irish boxer banned

THE IRISH featherweight, Paul Griffin, was yesterday suspended from boxing after he had to be physically restrained from confronting officials when a doctor stopped his fight.

Griffin, 21 and ranked No 5 in the world, had been knocked down twice by Zambia's Steven Chungu when an Italian doctor, Antonio Franconi, stopped the fight 26 seconds into the second round. Griffin will hear today how long his ban will be.

The International Amateur Boxing Association also said it had suspended two officials, the Danish referee, Paul Gardbo, and the Ghanaian judge, Keith Dadzie, for below-par performances.

At least Griffin got to fight, which was more than Iran's Ali Kazemi, who missed his bus and had to take a taxi to get to the arena. He arrived, minus headguard and gloves - and although the bell rang he was disqualified. Britain's featherweight, Brian Carr, lost to Faustino Reyes Lopez in a first-round contest yesterday, the margin being 22-10 in the Spaniard's favour.