A dream was halted on Monday night, when Kelyn Cassidy's hopes of boxing at the Paris Olympics came to a end, at least for now.
The 26-year-old lost to Nurbek Oralbay by split decision at the Road to Paris qualifiers in Busto Arsizio, in the North of Italy.
The city is known for textiles, and Cassidy had hoped to weave a tapestry of his own to become just the 22nd person from Waterford to represent Ireland at the Olympics.
Oralbay, the 80kg World Champion as of last year, was the favorite and would go on to take the win by the narrowest of margins as Cassidy once again pushed a world medallist to the brink.
Both fighters played chess, dangling feints for the other to bite onto. The Ballybeg native landed but wasn't finding his range to land with real damage, while Oralbay had found enough shots in the exchanges to convince the officials.
While the World Champ had been more effective, Cassidy caught him with a sweeping right hand inside the final 45 seconds of the round and was able to follow it up with shots that carried more weight.
It was 4-1 to the Kazakhstani at the end of the first.
Kelyn returned for the second with stiffer intent. His feet were more planted as he looked to squeeze the leather to his opponent's face. The radar that had been off in the first round was back in tune again as he bobbed and weaved away from Oralbay.
The feint game had started to swing and Cassidy, in red, was leading the dance in the second, with the boxer in the blue corner finding success in the crumbs of the exchanges.
While the Saviour's Crystals boxer was finding his mark, Oralbay wanted to slow the pace and tie up to break the rhythm, but soon returned to looking for his own counter shots.
The canvas had been well worn by the end of the second round and as Cassidy raised his hand returning to the blue corner, the judge's tallies showed he had tied it up on three of the five scorecards, with two still seeing it as a 20-18 affair, in favour of Oralbay.
Kelyn will have known he needed to pick up tee pace in the third if he was to convince the dissenting judges.
The chess game resumed.
Both boxers teasingly draped a hand outwards asking the other to go first, and they exchanged shots throughout the three minutes.
The Déise Southpaw was able to negate Orablay's damaging shots, slipping out of range and then flurrying to land, but not being able to find his mark. Several tie-ups were split by the referee and Oralbay was able to make hay in those grapples.
A shot, or a shoulder, or something else opened a cut on Oralbay's nose, which the Kazakhstani could not let be. Cassidy went to work to try and impinge it further in the final minute landing sharp left and right hands.
In the final stanzas, Cassidy looked like the aggressor, albeit was caught in some scuffles. When the bell went the Irish man was positive, while his opponent was draped over the ropes.
As the referee held both boxer's hands, it was the World Champion who got his raised, winning on a 3-2 split. Cassidy had not been able to convince the two judges he needed to.
For now, his Olympic dream will be on pause.
There is another bite of the cherry in Thailand in May, when there are more World Qualifiers, but that will be the last chance.
