BOXERS OFF TO A FLYER
LANKY young plumber Harry Garside cleaned up Ghana’s Rio Olympian Abdul Omar at the Oxenford Studios last night on what was a great opening day for Australia’s boxers at the Commonwealth Games
The 20-year-old Melbourne 60kg southpaw won a unanimous decision over the vastly more experienced African who had won a bronze medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Garside, who works as a volunteer with troubled teens when not training, showed little charity with his pinpoint accuracy last night.
His next fight will be on Monday against the ambitiously named 18-year-old Tryagain Ndevelo of Namibia.
Garside is a protégé of the veteran Melbourne trainer Brian Levier.
The pair have been training together since Garside was nine years old.
Earlier yesterday, Adelaide’s Terry Nickolas scored Australia’s first win at the Commonwealth Games, outpointing vastly experienced Carl Hield of the Bahamas at 69kg.
Nickolas, 25, won a unanimous decision over the 31year-old who was competing in his fifth Commonwealth Games and who had taken bronze at Delhi in 2010.
Nickolas started boxing training nine years ago with his uncle Paul Panos, who believed the hard discipline of the gym would stop his nephew getting into trouble on the streets.