By Ron Lane
LAST week for four nights – Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 450 boxers gathered at the Acacia Ridge Tavern in Brisbane to contest the 252 fights that would lead to some being crowned with Australia’s highest boxing title – the National Golden Gloves.
With all states well represented and teams from both New Zealand and New Caledonia competing, officials are rating these Golden Gloves as the best ever.
Happy to say that our Noosa Shire was well represented with teams going from Noosa Box Office (NBO) boxing club Noosaville, and Impact Boxing Academy Cooroy.
For NBO, Keana Welch had a great tournament. This young schoolgirl, boxing in two divisions, won the gold medal in both. Then to top it off, she received the trophy for best school girl boxer of the tournament.
When we consider the overall results there can be no doubt that the Impact Boxing Academy Cooroy, under owner/coach Mark Evans, is at present rated the most successful amateur boxing club in all of Australia.
The final bell was rung, results were tallied and the Academy finished with an outstanding nine Golden Glove champions (gold medals) and two silver medallists.
Also two members of Impact, Luke Martin and Tyler Blizzard, won their challenge bouts. These major bouts were to finalise the naming of the Queensland team; a team which will travel to Ireland to take part in major invitation tournaments against the best in the land.
Interesting to note that of the twelve chosen to represent our state, five are from the Impact club; Brock Shelly, Sam Cameron-Hands, Luke Martin, Tyler Blizzard and Taylah Robinson (female division).
Another major success for Impact was when Ella Boot – a Golden Glove winner – was also named as the Female Youth Boxer of the tournament. With NBO’s Keana Welch also winning the best schoolgirl award, it tells us that our girls are indeed in good hands.
Well done to our local coaches Israel Kani of NBO and Mark Evans of Impact.
Next week we take a closer look at our Noosa Shire Golden Glove champions.
