Scotland’s last hope in the Belgrade Winner Tournament, Kieran Smith, has lost in the final to Russian Evgeny Shvedenko. Kieran didn’t quite get off to the start he’d have hoped for, and went in 4-1 down at the end of the first round. Despite producing a very good second round, and landing some excellent shots, Kieran and National Coach Mike Keane were surprised to see that the score was 9-3 to the Russian, at the end of the round. As much as Kieran tried to put the pressure on in the third round, to claw back the points gap, Shevdenko was experienced enough to preserve his lead, and managed to add to it before the end of the round. The final result was 11-4 in favour of the Russian, and, although, he didn’t win this one, Kieran can take a lot of confidence from his performances in what is one of the toughest tournaments on the amateur boxing calendar, considering this is only his first year as a senior boxer.
The Belgrade tournament provided excellent preperation for the GB Championships, and has given some of the boys, their first taste of full international boxing.
Well done to all the Scottish boxers who took part.
