Team Scotland Roar through to the Hakija Finals!
Day 1 of the Hakija tournament in Bosnia took place on Saturday 18th May 2013, with 6 boxers representing Team Scotland in the multi-nation tournament. The action from the first day was as follows:
56kg: Joe Ham SCOTLAND v Jomah Arabi QATAR
The bout started fairly even, with both boxers attempting to penetrate their opponents guard with close to mid-range punching. However, as the round reached the halfway stage Joe delivered a venomous body punch underneath the guard of Arabi, with the referee having no choice but to deliver a standing count. Joe pounced on his opponent as soon as the count finished, and after unleashing several sustained attacks the referee had no choice but to stop the bout in favour of the Scotsman – well done Joe, giving a great start to Team Scotland.
60kg: Aleksov Martin MACEDONIA v Charlie Flynn SCOTLAND
Next up was Charlie Flynn, who dominated proceedings from the opening bell. With his opponent choosing to box on the back foot, Charlie applied solid front foot pressure in order to keep his retreating opponent in range. Stringing together very effective combination punching to head and body, Charlie maintained the momentum throughout the contest. With a solid display of educated pressure and slick footwork, there was no doubting the winner of this contest on the final bell – a very good performance by Charlie.
75kg: Fatlum Zhuta MACEDONIA v Kieran Smith SCOTLAND
Kieran faced the experienced Zhuta in this middleweight contest, with the Macedonian having previously competed at World Championship level. From the opening bell, Zhuta looked to nullify the Scotsman’s reach advantage, throwing his punches first then following with the feet to close down the boxing range. However, Kieran persisted to break away from the clinches and make room for his punches, undoubtedly looking the more positive in the ring. However, in the third and final round, Kieran went up a level and dominated his opponent until the final bell. Slick feet coupled with whipping punches at long range, once the Scotsman got into his rhythm there could only be one winner – well done Kieran.
91kg: Dilan Prasovic MONTENGRO v Stephen Lavelle SCOTLAND
Last up for Team Scotland was Stephen Lavelle, in the final bout of the day. With excellent timing and accuracy from the off, Stephen dominated his opponent for the first 2 rounds. Utilising feints and dummies in preparation of his attacks, the Scotsman simply could not miss with both hands, and was providing a master class in punch selection and phasing the attack. In the third and final round, the Montenegrin started to throw wild punches in desperation, reinforcing the presumed lead Stephen had mustered from the first 2 rounds. Showing sound composure, Stephen nullified the wild attacks and immediately swung the momentum back in his favour. On the sounding of the final bell, it looked like Team Scotland had carried out a clean sweep with Stephen’s solid performance; remarkably however the decision went to the boxer from Montenegro – extremely unlucky for Stephen, an excellent performance nevertheless.
With Team Scotland’s Lewis Benson and Scott Forrest receiving byes on Day 1, no fewer than 5 Scottish boxers have progressed through to the finals, scheduled to commence on Sunday 19th May 2013 at 12pm local time (GMT +1hr), with the final session being made up as follows for the Scottish boxers:
56kg: Joe Ham SCOTLAND v David Cufaj BONSIA
60kg: Ismet Zeric BOSNIA v Charlie Flynn SCOTLAND
64kg: Tadej Mernik SLOVENIA v Lewis Benson SCOTLAND
75kg: Nabah Ahmad QATAR v Kieran Smith SCOTLAND
81kg: Plantic Damir CROATIA v Scott Forrest SCOTLAND
