SCOTLAND’S Aaron Cullen says he is aiming for a World Youth Championship medal after competing in his third international final of 2022.
The Renfrewshire boxer reached the final of the 40th Golden Gloves of Vojvodina Youth Tournament in Serbia last week, as he took the Silver medal home after a razor thin 3-2 split decision defeat.
The 18-year-old was boxing in his third final of the year, despite only representing Scotland for the first time 12 months ago, at the Nikolay Pavlyukov Memorial Tournament in Russia.
Cullen lost to the eventual Gold medal winner from Russia in the second preliminary round last September, but has reached the Final of every international competition he has competed in since.
The teenager took Gold medals at both the Brasov Open Youth Championships in Romania and the Danas Pozniakas Youth tournament in Lithuania earlier this year.
The next big competition on the horizon for the Scot is the IBA World Youth Championships, which take place in Spain in November.
“I want to medal at that event,” Aaron said of the upcoming World Championships, which will take place in Alicante.
“It was frustrating that I didn’t get Gold in Serbia, so now I need to get something at the Worlds.
“Gold is the aim, but I want a medal at least.”
Although he didn’t win his third international Gold medal of the year, it was still another successful tournament for the Scot.
Cullen defeated India’s Mehra Vishwas in the Quarter-Finals and then Kazakhstan’s Almat Abduali in the Semi-Finals, before the 3-2 split decision defeat to India’s Ashish in the Final.
The 54kg Silver was one of three medals won by Team Scotland, with Doon Valley Heavyweight Kian Govan winning 92kg Silver and Byron Light-Welterweight Sonny Kerr winning 63.5kg Bronze.
“It was a good experience in Serbia,” Aaron added.
“The camp beforehand was good, it was all outdoors which was different. But I took a lot away from it.
“Overall it was a good experience, although I would have liked to have come away with the Gold.
“I thought in the Final in the first round the boy edged that as I started a bit slower, but in the second I got right into it and started picking my shots and picking him off.
“In the third round the lad started to tire and I was still strong, and I started to take the centre and push him back and hurt him.
“I believe I did enough to win it.
“But it was my first time boxing boxers from India and Kazakhstan.”
On top of his experiences in the ring, Aaron was also recruited into the Team Scotland Achieve 2022 programme.
The Bantamweight, along with Irvine Vineburgh boxer Brooke Neely and Meadowbank coach James Paton, were part of a 66-strong group of potential future Commonwealth athletes and coaches who attended the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to get a feel for a large Games environment, as well as attending sport sessions and taking part in bespoke workshops.
Cullen saw some of the boxing at the NEC as Team Scotland won five medals in the ring to make it the most successful Commonwealth Games ever for Scottish boxing.
The teenager admitted he was inspired by the performances of Scotland’s boxers, and has his sights set on trying to be in the squad for the next Games in Australia in 2026.
“It was a great experience, I enjoyed it,” said Aaron of his time at the Commonwealth Games as part of the Achieve programme.
“I didn’t get to see the boxing Finals unfortunately as we had to go see the Athletics, as we were given a timetable to see different sports.
“When we went to the Badminton we did sneak out to see the boxing as it was next door.
“We did go and see the Quarter-Finals, we saw Matty (McHale), Tyler (Jolly) and Reese (Lynch), but we missed Lennon (Mulligan) as we were too late.
“It is great to see them doing so well – it does show that if they can do it, then I can do it.
“They have got a few years of experience on me, so hopefully by that time I should be able to do the same.
“It shows that Scotland has improved a lot because it never used to be like that.
“Hopefully I can get on the GB Squad in the future and go down the pathway that Reese and Sam (Hickey) have.”
