By Ron Lane
Last weekend the Cooroy Impact Amateur Boxing Club was again busy when club officials took two fighters to take part in a tournament held at the D’Aguilar Hotel at Mt Mee, Kilcoy.
Despite being only a team of two, it was important for the club to show its support to the smaller out-of-the-way tournaments.
For one fighter in particular, 10-year-old Cohen Robinson, it was very important, because for Cohen it was his first fight. Boxing in the 34kg division he was unlucky too lose on a split decision. For the second fighter, Lachie Proctor having his seventh fight, he continued his winning streak, winning on a TKO in round two.
At the completion of the night coaches for both these young men and their opponents were complimented for the high standard of boxing displayed by these young fighters. “When they are young and just starting out it is important to bring them along slowly, so to get a compliment like this from a referee shows that our Queensland coaches must be doing a lot of things right,” said Impact coach and president of Boxing Queensland Mark Evans.
Observers, who witnessed Lachie’s win, said that for someone just starting out his ability to stick to the fight plan set by his coach was outstanding. When you take these remarks and results into consideration it is easy to understand why the Impact club has, over the last three years won more Australian titles than any other club in the country.
Taylah Robinson from the Impact club has arrived in Colorado, USA, and is now training in Colorado Springs Olympic High Altitude Center – 6000 feet above sea level. Those invited to train are elite teams from all over the world and now Taylah plus six other Aussies are in camp training with USA and Finland teams.
Coach Evans said Taylah was keeping in touch and she reported the programs were indeed very tough.
“It has been ongoing for two weeks and there is a week to go. There are three training sessions per day, starting with a 5km or 10km run through the mountains back to the center, then sparring sessions and calisthenics.”
For her sparring sessions our local girl has been boxing with two world rated number ones; one from the 51kg division and another from the 54kg division. All this is to prepare Taylah for the Commonwealth Games selection trials starting in September at Acacia Ridge in Brisbane. If she wins through she then goes to Sydney to contest the Australian Titles; and from these the Australian team will be selected.
For our 19-year-old Taylah Robinson this is indeed a tough grind and at the end of the rainbow there is no big $100,000 dollar contract; merely the honor of representing her country, Australia, at the Commonwealth Games.
Football players who represent Australia should take note.
To reach these high standards it is not only the fighters who must work hard but also the coaches. This weekend Evans will travel to the AIS in Canberra where he will take part in a two-day high performance coaching seminar. With one coach being selected from each state, Evans selection is a just reward for the success that he, his coaching panel and support group have achieved.
The next major outing for the club will be the Bundaberg Wide Bay Championships to be held on 17 June.
We wish not only Impact, but also all clubs involved, good luck.
