Connor claims Elite spot:
BANGOR’S Welsh Youth boxing champion, Connor Burns, is on track for bigger things after being selected for the full-time elite squad programme in Cardiff.
As part of the programme, the Llandudno Boxing Club fighter will compete and train for international tournaments.
He will be on an international sparring camp in Spain this coming week.
This tops off another successful year with Burns winning seven of his nine contests matching his performance from the campaign before.
Burns’s only two defeats came against England’s Owen Cooper, with the Bangor lad winning another of their encounters.
These contests were in the welterweight division which was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain for Burns.
As he steps up in to the Elite (Senior) level he will be competing at middleweight as the 17-year-old continues to grow, with a possible future move up to light heavyweight on the cards.
Burns has huge potential and is seeking sponsorship to help him achieve his long-term ambitions of Commonwealth and Olympic competition.
Meanwhile, five of Llandudno’s schoolboy boxers have hit new heights.
They have been in action at the Welsh Institute of Sport, Cardiff, over the past two weekends. Ten-year-old Sean Jones and Alex Hender, 14, both gained unanimous wins in the Welsh semi-finals over Rhoose’s Iestyn Bird and Splott’s Peter McCann respectively.
That meant that Llandudno had five boxers in finals. Jones was unable to go all the way, losing on a split decision to Chepstow’s Cai Dean.
Frankie and Harry Montgomery both lost on splits to Kegan Jones (Dyffryn) and John Murphy (Penyrheol), respectively.
It was a different story for the unbeaten Luke Corcoran, who had probably the contest of the day with the very strong and experienced Kian Davies (Maerdy). Despite dominating the first round, Corcoran received a standing count, which filled his opponent with confidence and gave him a strong finish to the round.
In the second, Corcoran totally dominated his opponent. With everything to box for in the last, Corcoran gave his opponent a standing count and Davies was fortunate to make it to the final bell.
Perhaps a sign of the scoring of the day was that Corcoran only gained a split decision win in a bout he totally dominated.
Last up on the day was reigning schoolboy champion Hender. In a repeat of last year’s final he was up against John Probert (Pembroke).
Hender totally controlled the contest to win a one-sided affair – but again to be awarded the decision on a split.
He now goes on to compete in the GB finals at the end of July.