By Ron Lane
When the referee at the Australian Armature Boxing Championships in Sydney, raised the hand in victory of Cooroy’s Impact Boxing Academy fighter Taylah Robertson, it announced to the boxing fraternity that not only was this 19 year old now the national 51kg champion, but also she would represent her country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
After contesting three fights in three days to win the championship it was in Taylah’s words, “amazing, simply amazing; all the hard work and now lots of things are happening.”
Regarding the fight Taylah said: “My opponent was very tough but I felt in control throughout the whole fight and at the end I felt confident that I had won.”
Much to her credit she immediately took the opportunity to thank and acknowledge her coach Mark Evans.
“It would have been impossible without him; been together a long time, it’s been great.”
For this student and coach team it has been something of a seven-year journey; first with her as a junior, then as a youth and finally as an elite.
“This is her first year as elite,” Evans said.
“Some time ago when she was setting her goals she worked out that her first year as an elite would be the year of the Commonwealth Games so she made that her goal. Now she has won she realises this is her year, she will fight in front of millions; the stadium crowd plus the TV viewers.
“It will definitely be a tough tournament, fighters from all over; there will be so much riding on it.”
Another hot contender for a position on the Games team was Impact’s Tyler Blizzard. Boxing in the 56kg division he was very unlucky, fighting his way through to the final only to lose on a split decision.
In the semi-final he was up against the red hot favorite but caused a sensation by winning a points decision.
“This was his best performance,” oach Evans said.
“He was all over his opponent; but I think that maybe it took a little bit too much out of him so that in the final he had lost just a little of his edge.
“Unfortunately that’s the way it goes in boxing.”
However for this young man it has been a good year for early on he made the Australian team to box in the World Titles in Germany; definitely no mean feat.
Interesting to note that for coach Evans, his two big success stories have both been girls. First was Ella Boot who won the gold medal at the Youth Commonwealth Games in the Bahamas and now Robertson’s win in the Australian Titles.
Just think about it; all these achievements have come out of a little tin shed at the back of his house among the trees in Cooroy.
Later this month Evans and Boot will fly to India where in Guwahati, Boot will represent her country fighting in the Women’s Youth World Championships.
As I said before, move over boys the girls are back in town.
