EINDHOVEN ELITE
Valuable international experience at the tournament in Holland, writes Jamie Ingleby
THE Eindhoven Box Cup was held in Holland from October 19-23. Elite male and female boxers from 15 countries competed; with world class boxing on display throughout, fair judging and a good sporting atmosphere among the participants and officials made this great tournament.
All four of the Army’s female boxers finished on the podium. At 57kgs Tori Willets won her quarter-final against Louise Dugeny (Belguim) before losing to Kasthuri Hansika (Sri Lanka). 60kgs Alanna Nihell, the Army team captain, progressed to the final after beating Beata Dudekova (Holland), missing out on gold against Russian Olympic medallist, Anastasia Beliakova. 64kgs Megan Reid forced Tura Canan (Belgium) to retire after a heavy barrage of punches. She took silver, beaten in the final by Russia’s
Alexandra Ordina. Stephanie Wroe reached the 69kgs final beating Heelen Van Der Water
(Holland) then Gardiner Moore
(Scotland), before losing a split decision to Ireland’s Christina Desmond.
Army super-heavyweight Chez Nihell [ above] won gold, beating Ireland’s Dean Gardiner in the final. His light-welter team-mate
Ben Rees-davies lost by split decision to local boxer and crowd favourite Sammy Wagnveld. Welterweight Pete Love made an impressive start to his season dominating his quarter-final against
Giovanni Techel (Holland). His semi-final bout ended prematurely following a cut to Irish boxer Kieran Molloy. With nothing really between the two the judges opted for the Irish boxer. Molloy had to concede the final by walkover to Belgium’s Nabil Messaoudi.
Middleweight Callum Hill had his first bout for the Army, losing a split decision to Mustapha Amadu
(Belgium).
91kgs gold medallist, France’s
Rany Hadj Aissa beat Ireland’s
Kenneth Okungbowa in the final and the Army’s Mason Holmes in the semi-final.
Essex Uni’s Lewis Richardson beat Bradley Rea in the 75kgs final. English boxer Callum Thompson
triumphed at lightweight and Scotland’s Matthew Mchale won gold at 52kgs. Host nation stars Nouchka Fontijn and Peter Mullenberg both won gold medals.