With Team Scotland safely back on home soil from the 2012 AIBA World Youth Championships in with Armenia, ABS can reflect on a successful tournament which saw Scotland mixing in amongst the World’s elite boxers.
Scott Forrest progressed through to the 81kg final, defeating the World number 1 on the way. Scott faced local Armenian boxer Nikol Arutyunov in the final, in what was a hostile environment with over 8,000 Armenians in the crowd, and the Armenian president making a guest appearance just before Scott’s bout!
Scott struggled to find his range for the majority of the first round, with the Armenian content on boxing and moving on the back foot. Scott managed to find the target with both the lead hook and long rear hand, but nothing could really separate both boxers at the end of the first with the score reading 2-1 in favour of the Armenian.
Scott applied pressure on his opponent at close range throughout the second round and sent thundering uppercuts up through the middle of Arutyunov’s guard, finding the target with the straight lead hand whilst setting up his attacks. Despite this, the score at the end of the second round favoured Arutyunov 7-5.
With both boxers feeling the fatigue from their previous bouts, the last round proved to be a continuation of the second, with the Armenian using the entire ring in order to stay away from the Scotsman’s onslaughts. Scott pressed as best as he could, with his legs feeling like lead from the culmination of his previous hard contests. However, nobody could question the sheer determination of the fighting Scotsman on the final bell.
When the referee raised the hand of the Armenian who won with a final score of 13-9, it was hard for Team Scotland not to feel a little disappointed even though Scott had just won a World Championship silver medal and had came so close to Gold.
With no fewer than 69 countries participating in the competition, Scotland can be very proud of the performances of all four boxers who all performed to the best of their ability in this extremely difficult competition. Team Scotland’s performance is all the more remarkable when only a handful of nations out of the 69 participating had representation in the finals.
On the back of the extremely successful training camp with Russia before the tournament, the bond between Scotland and Russia is now evident for all to see in the boxing world. With Russia being such a superpower on the World boxing scene, this unique friendship can only help as we move towards Glasgow 2014 and beyond.
