Once again, our local Impact Boxing Club situated in Taylor Court Cooroy is in the news and for all the right reasons.
Two of its members, Paige Robinson and Cohen Robinson ( brother and sister) have been selected to represent Australia in the upcoming Oceanic Titles to be held in Samoa 21-26 May.
This will be the first time that the Robinson siblings will represent Australia together in the same team.
Paige who is currently ranked nine in the world in the 60kg division said, “ I am very excited to have my younger brother on the team at the same time. It is the first time that this sort of thing, has happened.”
Another plus for the club is that head coach Mark Evans will lead the Australian team into Samoa.
“I am very excited to once again lead my country as a coach and also very excited to have Paige and Cohen on the team together.
“These two have now trained under the Impact banner nearly for eight years. It is great to see their hard work and dedication paying off.“
The Oceanic Championships will include countries like New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia , and many others.
With both our football codes, Union and League, really spreading throughout the islands, it is great to see the sport of amateur boxing also on the move. Apart from it being good for the sport, it is a great opportunity for our state and national teams to be getting more international competition.
With Australia’s isolation from the major boxing countries such as England, Europe and America, international competition has always been a problem thus, the opportunity to have our representative teams competing throughout the Pacific regions is of the utmost importance.
Over the last few months there have been several boxing tournaments throughout the state in particular North Queensland. These were successful and many featured an increase in the number of bouts for women.
Locally the Impact Club hosted what has become an annual and highly successful event, the Young Guns Tournament. Held at, and supported by the Noosa State School Cooroy, it has now become recognised as the Sunshine Coast Titles and will continue to be an annual event. Starting at 3pm it featured some 60-plus bouts and was well attended with fighters coming from all regions of the state.
On what could be the other side of the coin, for the last five years a young man Grayson Keating, known affectionally as The Peoples Champion, has been a popular part of the Impact Family. Every year at the Young Guns Tournament, you will see Grayson climb through the ropes, and take on one of Impact’s boxers in a wildly entertaining bout.
“To all of us in the gym, Grayson is family, a real happy go lucky character,” Evans said.
“Our gym has given Grayson a place to be who he wants to be, with no judgment in a happy friendly environment and everyone loves him, hence the nickname.
There can be no doubt that this young man has taught us what the program, Boxing Beyond Barriers, is all about.”
Noosa Athletics
The word is out.
There has been yet another couple of big weekends for our Noosa Athletics and Noosa Little Athletics clubs, while competing in the national championships.
Noosa Athletics was up first competing over four days in Brisbane, then it was our Noosa Little Athletics’ chance to shine the following weekend in Melbourne.
We had 10 athletes representing our senior club in Brisbane against Australia’s best and again our Noosa Athletes did us proud, with lots of personal best, and many athletes qualifying through to finals finishing top eight in Australia.
Special mention goes out to Kristie Edwards who finished third in the women’s 100m and fourth in the 200. Then in the men’s U14 Marlon Andrews came third in the 100m and won the silver medal as a member of the 4x100m relay.
Taya Clayton finished fifth in the U14 women’s 80m hurdles then followed on to win a bronze medal in the Queensland women’s U14, 4x100m relay. It was at this stage, that Mick Hooper, senior head coach Noosa Athletics, was asked to join the coaching staff for the Australian Little Athletics Championships to be held the following weekend in Melbourne.
“You can imagine how I was feeling when asked to join the coaching staff. Then add to this Noosa had four Little Athletics representing Queensland. I was over the moon,” said coach Hooper.
Apart from their success on the track, it was a great experience for the members of the Queensland team.
As for them, it was the first time that they travelled and stayed with the Queensland team without their parents. Well chaperoned, they had a great time both on and off the track.
Luca Gerrard (triple jump and 100m sprint), Eli Melitz (1500m walk), Taya Clayton (100m and 80m hurdles) all finished in the top eight in the Swedish relay (100m ,200m,300m,400m) – amazing results for our small club at national level.
Acknowledgments
I think it is only right that people of the Noosa sporting community, should take the time to acknowledge the fact that two of our sport coaches have reached the national pinnacle of their chosen endeavours.
First, we have Mark Evans owner and head coach of the Impact Boxing and Fitness Centre Cooroy. For the second time Mark has been appointed as national coach to take the Australian Amateur Boxing team into Samoa for the upcoming international tournament.
Now at the recent Australian Little Athletics Championships, Noosa’s Athletics head coach Mick Hooper, was invited to join the coaching staff for the Australian Little Athletics Championships.
For both these men this is well deserved and a just reward for their dedication and time they have given to their chosen sport.
It is to be hoped that their achievements and success will enable them break into the world of sponsorship. Let us always remember that their chosen sports of boxing and athletics, are both Olympic sports.
