“And it should be 11,” was his parting shot. Again it took it took a couple of seconds for the significance of the remark to sink in. Evidently Antia hasn’t forgotten what went down in Rio five years ago.

He is convinced that it wasn’t just Michael Conlan who was robbed; he believes Katie Taylor did enough in her bronze medal fight against Mira Potkonen to get the verdict. Hence the two ‘missing’ medals.

The Tokyo Olympics has done much to restore the reputation of Irish boxing. Things remains close to chaotic behind the scenes in the Irish Athletic Boxing Association, but so long as the boxers bring home medals, nobody passes any heed.

Antia is rated as one of the best tactical coaches in the world. His fingerprints were all over the Irish performances in Tokyo. Kellie Harrington, in particular, has total faith in the tactics he devises for her fights.

Of course, things don’t always work to plan. Kurt Walker’s first round performance against American featherweight Duke Ragan cost him a bronze medal and a possible place in an Olympic final.

Back in 1992 when Michael Carruth and Wayne McCullough won gold and silver medals within an hour of each other at the Barcelona Olympics, the work of Cuban coach Nicolas Cruz was heralded as a key factor in their success.

But Antia has had a more seminal role in transforming the long-term fortunes of Irish boxing. It was Keegan’s idea to hire a technical coach from Russia for the new High- Performance Unit he had been given the task of establishing in 2002.

The break-up of the Soviet Union had been a game changer in terms of Olympic qualification. Ireland only managed to qualify one boxer, Michael Roche, for the Sydney Olympics and he was beaten in the first round.

“Geographically, the majority of the countries that were part of the old Soviet Union were in Europe, which made it the strongest boxing continent in the world,” Keegan later recalled. “This had made life very difficult for Irish boxers and we hadn’t responded. We needed to learn all we could in Europe and become competitive against European opponents.”

But it was still a simple case of serendipity which brought Antia to Ireland in the spring of 2003. Cork businessman Dan O’Connell, an international boxing official, had a decade long friendship with a Georgian boxing referee Zurab ‘Rob’ Tibua. In 2002 Tibua invited O’Connell to his native city of Poti to help train local boxing referees and judges.

While visiting the gym in Poti O’Connell noticed Antia doing a coaching session.

“I noticed a coach working with a group of boxers in the other half of the gym,” he recalls. “The guy just caught my attention. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a bit like seeing a golfer swing a club. There was something there. I remember thinking ‘that guy looks good’.”

Tibua and Antia were life-long friends. Later at dinner, O’Connell floated the idea of Antia coming to Ireland to coach. Though he was content with life in his native country, he responded to the invitation with the comment, ‘Why not’.

O’Connell relayed word of his chance encounter back to the IABA who passed on the recommendation to Keegan who did his own research and was blown away by what he found out.

“He (Antia) was phenomenally successful, phenomenally entrepreneurial, a phenomenal relationship builder and very creative in the way he did things. This was very obvious because he had more boxers on the old Soviet Union teams than any of the republics other than Russia. There was the language issue, but this was counter-balanced by other factors.”

In late January, Dan O’Connell found himself at Dublin Airport to collect Tibua and Antia. Ten days later Antia was due to be interviewed along with 12 others for the job of head coach. Tibua came as interpreter.

“He brought a most magnificent coaching plan with him,” remembers O’Connell. “Unfortunately, it was all written in Georgian. We spent most of the ten days trying to understand it and translate it into English as best we could.”

On the eve of the interview, Antia began to have second thoughts. “So, I went into pub and had too much Guinness,” he said. “In the morning I had little headache.” But he did manage to learn one full English sentence which he dutifully recited to the interview board. “Where I am, there is victory.”

Predictably the question and answer session of the interview didn’t go well for him. But once he was given an opportunity with a group of boxers, he was in his comfort zone.

Future Olympian Darren O’Neill was one of the boxers who participated in the session. “Zaur couldn’t speak English, but he could speak boxing,” recalled the Kilkenny man. “Every one of us could understand him.” The search for a coach was over.

Antia had an eight-year-old daughter Natia and a four-year-old son David. His wife Nona expected his stay in Ireland would be relatively short. But within two years the entire family had moved to Ireland. Their third child George was born here, and all are now Irish citizens.

Antia’s lack of English wasn’t an issue inside the National Stadium. But it posed unique challenges as he adapted to life in Ireland. He once spent half a day wandering around Dublin because he got off at the wrong bus stop, couldn’t remember his address and was unable to contact a friend in Georgia who spoke English. Billy Walsh became his unofficial English teacher.

But inside the Stadium the boxers soaked up his knowledge, though initially the relationship got off to a rocky start. Antia was shocked to find out that the elite boxers only trained twice a week. He later told Kenneth Egan that on a scale of ten he rated him a two. “I would have given myself an eight out of ten rating at the time,” said Egan. “He told me I was a two. It was hilarious, but I was disgusted.”

Despite the success of the high performance programme it has never been fully embraced by the so-called boxing family, with Keegan and then, more controversially, Billy Walsh, leaving. But Antia has managed to stay clear of all the politicking and has established an excellent working relationship with the new High Performance Unit head Bernard Dunne.

The meltdown the boxing squad experienced in Rio would have hurt him, even though most of what happened was outside his control. Since then he has stayed out of the limelight. But inside the walls of the boxing gym in Abbotstown, he remains as influential as ever.

And the medals won by Aidan Walsh and Kellie Harrington in Tokyo are testimony to his continuing positive influence on Irish boxing.

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