This was a Youth Tournament in Serbia held from 6th-8th July 2012. In attendance was National Coach Mike Keane, Craig McAvoy, Joe Ham and Referee George Brown.
Boxers :- 49kg Jack Turner, 52kg Reece McFadden, 56kg Scott McCormack, 60kg Sam Ball, 64kg Willie Mowatt, 75kg Grant Quigley and 81kg Scott Forrest.
Travel went as planned with our first flight leaving Edinburgh at 8.25pm on Wednesday 04 July 2012 with the team staying overnight in the London Heathrow Premier Inn hotel. Next morning the team had a further flight to Vienna at 6.00am then departed Vienna at 10.45am and arrived in Belgrade around midday. Unfortunately we had to wait for over 3 hours in Belgrade airport for the Russian Team to arrive so the bus could transport us all to the accommodation which was around a 2 hour drive in searing temperatures
We arrived around 5.00pm in Vojvodina and stayed in students accommodation. This was very basic and had no air conditioning with temperatures over 90 degrees – not ideal!
All the boxers were checked for weight when we arrived with no problems. Lunch was available but the food was not great! Training was arranged for 8.15pm but was more of a loosen up session and only lasted around 30 minutes. There was a Technical meeting at 9.00pm in which the usual areas were covered. Next day, the medicals and weigh in were at 9.00am with no problems for any of our boxers. The draw was conducted at 12.00pm
The Countries in attendance were :- Serbia, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, Hungary, Greece, Holland, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Scotland.
Friday 06 July 2012 – Quarter Finals, Novi Sad venue
All our team boxed on the first day of the tournament except for Scott Forrest who had received a bye to the semi-finals. The venue Zabalj was a one hour drive and the venue was also subject to extremely temperatures.
Jack Turner was our first boxer to compete against Serbian Pavlov Radoslav. Jack was always on the back foot although he was scoring with some decent long range shots against a very average boxer. The heat may have been a factor and he lost out by 11-2.
Reece McFadden was next on against Hungarian Mark Szoros. Reece started fast and put his opponent under pressure using his short/mid range punches building up a decent lead going into the 3rd round. Again, the heat was starting to tell and the pace dropped somewhat but a great performance saw Reece declared the winner by 13-7.
Scott McCormack was next up and he was up against Bosnian Borislav Gligoric. Scott just never let him settle into any rhythm and constantly pressured his opponent all over the ring with a tremendous work rate. The Bosnian couldn’t handle the onslaught and in round 2 and the referee stepped in to save him from any more punishment.This was a great win for Scott in his first overseas Tournament.
Sam Ball was unlucky to come up against Alexandros Tsanikidis from Greece, the best boxer at this Tournament. Sam gave him a good run for his money throwing some good combinations to the head and body but the Greek’s age and experience was just too much at this stage of his career. Sam never gave up right to the end of the bout and although the score was 13-4 for Tsanikidis, Sam’s performance was the best against him given he went on to win the Gold medal and also Best Boxer award.
Willie Mowatt had a very close bout with Aleksander Georgiev From Bulgaria. Neither boxer stopped and there was only 1 point of a difference either way. Willie was using his long South paw lead and having some success with the rear hand. His opponent was also a south paw and pushed forward looking for the win but again Willie was the Boxer who had to dig deep to the final bell. He was awarded the decision by 9-8 points – a good win for Willie with his limited international experience.
Last on for Scotland was Grant Quigley. He was boxing against Maksim Cvetkov from Bulgaria and right from the opening bell Grant showed good composure combined with strength and a great will to win. He pushed his opponent back for most of the bout with head and body punches. The Bulgarian had no reply to the power that Grant was throwing winning by 12-5.
At the end of day one (Quarter Finals) Scotland had four boxers into the Semi’s and also Scott Forrest who had received a bye.
Saturday 07 July 2012 Semi-Finals, Novi Sad venue
Reece McFadden v Nikita Kuznetsov of Russia.
Reece looked as if he had done enough to justify a win. Although it was a close bout he seemed to edge most of the exchanges with his Russian opponent and it was a surprise at the end of the contest to find out he had lost by 6-2 . Definitely not the correct score and a pity Reece was not progressing to the Final’s.
Scott McCormack v Russian Magomdrashid Dzhabrailov of Russia.
Scott tried his best going forward at every opportunity but the experienced Russian was using good counter punches and catching Scott. Although Scott lost the score of 8-0 did not do his performance justice.
Willie Mowatt v Sergei Sobylinskii of Russia.
This was similar to Scott’s bout with the far more experienced Russian looking to counter and pick Willie off at every opportunity. This was a very commendable effort from Willie who gave his all. 10-0 did not appear to reflect the contest but the Russian was the clear winner.
Grant Quigley v Hungarian Bence Nagy of Hungary.
This was a strange contest with the scores still at 0-0 after 2 decent rounds from Grant. The coaches thought there must have been a problem with the computer! At the end of the contest with Grant pushing forward for the entire 9 minutes the final score was only 1-0 in favour of Grant. It looked more like 7/8 points for Grant but none the less he had reached the final.
Scott Forrest v Maiden Habus of Serbia.
Scott started strongly throwing two hard attacks from the first bell. It was only a matter of time before the Referee stepped in to stop Habus from taking any more. Result R.S.C.1 and Scott also into the Final.
Sunday 08 July 2012 Finals, Novi Sad venue
Grant Quigley v Polinikis Kalamaras of Greece.
This was one way traffic for Grant and he never took a step back in the contest using all his punching repertoire to his advantage. The Greek did well to survive the onslaught and must have been happy to hear the final bell as Grant had overpowered him from the beginning winning by 11-1. This was a very well deserved Gold Medal having boxed 3 times to get it.
Scott Forrest v Alexey Yaskov of Russia.
Scott started very strongly throwing plenty of punches with force and although the Russian was effectively blocking, Scott managed to land a effective shots. Scott never gave up and the Russian could not stop Scott pushing him back. However, he was catching Scott with very good counter punches. The eventual score of 11-0 to Yaskov was not reflective of Scott’s performance .
Overall, this was a very difficult tournament with some of the best Youth Boxers in Europe in attendance. It was big ask for our boys but all came through with flying colours. Fitness levels and general will to win was first class with 7 contests won overall and a medal haul of 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze.
The most encouraging aspect was the way our boys seemed to finish the stronger in most of the bouts considering the intense heat in the venue. The team left in typical Scottish summer temperatures of around 56 degrees and had to box in indoor temperature of close to 100 fahrenheit.
