"Lost by 1... Sorry coach."
Kenny Lally's text message to his Inner City Boxing Club coach Bob Pegues summed up in one sentence what happened to him in the ring Tuesday at the elite world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.
His three-round loss to Rey Saludar of the Philippines, the 2010 Asian Games champion, wasn't at all what Lally had hoped when he climbed into the ring for his first bout on the world stage.
Lally trailed in the fight by three points after the first round and had worked the gap down to two after the second two-minute session. He closed to within a point of tying Saludar when the hammer struck the bell at the end of the third round.
Lally later phoned Pegues and told him: 'No excuses coach, I started too slow. But now it's Rio for the last Olympic qualifier in May."
The 21-year-old Inner City fighter from Prince George was among a group of close to 70 boxers entered in the 52-kilogram weight class. A total of 685 boxers from 127 countries entered the 13-day single-bout elimination tournament.
Lally is trying to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London and needed to win at least three matches in Baku to achieve that goal. He'll get another crack at it in May 2012 at the elite continental championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In June 2010, Lally won a silver medal at the most recent elite continental tournament in Ecuador.
He's expected to return to Prince George on Oct. 10.
