RINGSIDE

TOTTENHAM

MARCH 23 & 24

LAMIN CONTEH (Islington) underlined his improvement this season when he scored two good wins in three days to reach the welterweight final of the London Elite Championships.

This year the capital’s event has been reorganised, with the divisional round scrapped and boxers entering a free-for-all draw. Ten entries meant an extra round at both 69kgs and 75kgs, but Conteh had a bye into the last eight, where at Tottenham Sports Centre he beat Repton’s muscular Romario

Wallace on a split decision (although Lamin seemed to have won all right).

The 69/75 semis were supposed to happen with the Cadet Championships finals in Basildon on Sunday (March 26), but when that whole show was called off, the Elite bouts went ahead at the West Ham gym the same day. Facing Conteh was the hosts’

Jonathan Francois, a former Commonwealth Games rep (for Grenada) who beat him on an Islington show in December. This return was gruelling, but Conteh’s right hands earned him the decision and a final against another “Hammer” in Myles Cousins.

The held-over semis also produced an intriguing final at middleweight. Stonebridge’s flashy

Kelvin Fawaz, a former national champ at 71kgs, hit too hard for tall

Jamal Akay (All Stars), dropping him then buckling him with rights for a second-round stoppage. Meanwhile, stocky southpaw

William Webber (Lion) used his greater experience to outbox Double Jab’s Conor Hinds, who had caused a shock in the first series when flooring and outscoring one-time Repton starlet Ryan Pickard.

Three of the seven lightweights were with Islington, but Jack

Brooker looks the one to beat. In both the quarter-final (against Islington’s Jerome Campbell) and the semi (IQ’S Dennis Wahome), the Northolt southpaw took a round to warm up before pulling away to win unanimously.