Boxing Scotland

Promoting and Developing Boxing In Scotland

ABS bring home the Cup in Celtic Tri-Nations Challenge

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Isle of Man ABS Squad

The successful ABS Squad with the Tri-Nations trophy

The Amateur Boxing Scotland Youth/Schoolboy team who travelled to Isle of Man for the Celtic Tri-Nations Challenge 21ST – 22ND May returned with trophy after picking up the highest number of wins in the tournament. This was the perfect warm up ahead of next month’s GB Youth Championships at Ravenscraig Sports Centre and for when Scotland return to the island for the Youth Commonwealth Games in September.

The ABS team who travelled comprised of 6 Youth boxers (Michael McGurk, Mark McKeown, Charlie Flynn, Rhys Pagan, Kieran Smith and Grant Quigley) and 2 Schoolboys (Stephen Newns and Aidan Gough) along with Team Manager Tony Kerr and Coaches Mike Keane and Raymond Gibson.

The opposition was of a strong standard featuring boxers from Wales and Isle of Man, consisting of IOM, Welsh and GB ChampionsTri Nations Trophy

In the Youth category, the young Scots produced a fantastic display winning five of the six contests they competed in, with only Grant Quigley, who had just returned from a hand injury, narrowly losing out to Welsh 1993 Champion Nathan Thorley 26-23. Our two Schoolboys also performed well, with young Stephen Newns taking a lot of positives from his close contest and 9-5 defeat to IOM’s Mathew Rennie, whilst the more experienced Aidan Gough added to Scotland’s win tally with a closely fought victory over IOM’s Jamie Devine. Welsh National Coach Colin Jones commented that he was very impressed with standard of our boxers.

Our Youths have now laid down the gauntlet ahead of the GB Championships and Youth Commonwealth Games, with impressive victories over Isle of Man Commonwealth Games representative Eddie Rennie (Rhys Pagan), Welsh Champions (Charlie Flynn v Jordan Fisher, Kieran Smith v Pierre Lima and Michael McGurk v Joshua John) and a notable victory for Mark McKeown  over current GB Champion Sam Barker.

Is this a sign of things to come for Scotland as the countdown continues towards these two Youth Championships? It will certainly provide the young Scots with a strong psychological boost going into the GB’s and Commonwealth Games  and hopefully our boxers will produce more medal success in what has been a strong year for Scotland so far.