Team Scotland at Commonwealth Youth Games (from left) Coach Tony Kerr, Charlie Flynn, Mark McKeown, Kieran Smith, Rhys Pagan, Grant Quigley, Coach Mike Keane
The five strong ABS Youth Squad who travelled to the Commonwealth Youth Games, returned from the Isle of Man with a fantastic Three Silvers medals and a Bronze in what was a tremendous display by the young boxers throughout the tournament.
On the final day of the Games yesterday, three boxers, Charlie Flynn (Newarthill), Kieran Smith (Springhill) and Grant Quigley (Port Glasgow) all competed in the Gold medal bouts. All three performed extremely well in closely fought contests and were unfortunate not to end victorious with two of the bouts decided by a single point, with all boxers landing Silver medals.
The first contest of the evening featured Charlie Flynn against Englands Henry Thomas, with young Charlie narrowly missing out on the Gold. In what was a very tight contest, a high scoring third round ultimately decided the result after one round a piece, with Englishman Thomas taking the decision 19-18.
Next up saw Kieran Smith against another English opponent, Damon Jones, in the welterweight final. Once again, there was little between the boxers with Englands Jones coming out on top thanks to a strong first round. Kieran closed the gap in the second and third rounds but was unable to overturn the lead with Jones taking the title 15-10.
The last final to feature Scotland was the middleweight contest with Grant Quigley taking on Australias Dylan Hardy. Once again the Scots will feel hard done by after another defeat with the narrowest of margins. With the first and second rounds both tied, there was nothing between the two going into the last. After a busy final round the decision still appeared unclear with Australian Hardy shading it 16-15.
The previous day, Rhys Pagan (Doon Valley) had competed in his semi final against Englands Darren Tetley. The two had met previously this year at the GB Youth Championships. As was the case at Ravenscraig in the GBs, this was a closely fought contest with Tetley taking the bout 19-12. Rhys received his Bronze medal from Commonwealth Games Federation President Michael Fennell.
On the opening day of the tournament, Scotlands man of the moment Mark McKeown (Barn) was paired with tournament favourite Qais Ashfaq of England. With Mark being in good form he went into this with a lot of confidence. Mark competed extremely well but lost out to eventual Gold Medallist Ashfaq 16-9.
All in all this was a fantastic performance by the Scotland Youth Squad bringing home four medals (3 Silver + 1 Bronze), however, given the circumstances they will feel a little hard done by not to be returning with Gold as all associated with the squad felt they merited at least one title.
