Karriss is the pride of MBBC following silver Euros finish
MACCLESFIELD Boys Boxing Club have been celebrating after one off our own grown boxers, Karriss Artingstall, represented Great Britain in the European championships in Madrid taking on the best in Europe.
After putting in the extra work, training camps in Thailand and extra sessions in the gym at home whilst working hard in her Sheffield base at the Institute of Boxing with GB, Karriss was feeling confident.
Her first opponent was a French girl, Mona Mestiaen, who she had already shared the square ring with on a sparring camp in Sheffield. Mona, seeded number three in the competition, looked very capable but it wasn’t long before Karriss got the measure of her and started to land with some solid punches and in round two the referee felt Mona was struggling and as a result gave her two standing eight counts.
Karriss took her foot off the gas and proceeded to pick her shots for the last round taking a unanimous win with all the judges in Karriss’ favour.
In the next round Karriss took on the Spanish number one, Rome Fernandez, knowing that the home girl was always going to be the favourite.
Karriss was apprehensive stepping through the ropes but stepped up to the mark from the off, showing great skill with phased attacks and solid punches. It wasn’t long before she administered two more eight counts in round two, this led to yet another unanimous win and a defiant bronze for the Macclesfield bomber.
The quarter finals brought Karriss’s toughest challenge yet the number one seed, current European champion and ranked No 2 in the world, Stanimira Petrova from Bulgaria.
Karriss knew she was in with the best but felt confident if she stuck to her game plan she good win.
It proved to be a contest of true boxing skill from both boxers – it was easy to understand why Petrova was number one seed as she was game as anything but the young girl from Macclesfield was working her out and beginning to edge in front.
With all to play for in round three Karriss caught Petrova and another eight count was administered. She was bossing the current European champion and went on to win by unanimous decision, securing her place in the final.
Karriss’ opponent in the final was Italian Irma Testa, the 2016 Olympian, so another big test. Both girls looked confident as the bell rang for round one and what a display of excellent boxing.
Karriss looked on top, countering every shot as Irma moved forward with straight shots, pushing on fast hands.
This was top class boxing back and to as they gave their all, a brilliant contest with both girls having success and for me at the end off round two it was close but with Karriss was just edging it but looked to be complaining in the corner over her elbow and you could clearly see in the third round she was unable to throw the back hand.
This allowed Irma to turn the bout around as she continued to work at a fast pace, and with Karriss limited to her lead hand she struggled to ward her off.
It was still a close contest but at the end of round three it was down to the international judges who decided in favour off the Italian girl as she was awarded gold.
Karriss showed great sportsmanship and congratulated Irma on a great fight.
A silver finish, a fantastic result for the young lady from Macclesfield going to the Europeans and beating the best top class boxers from the continent before narrowly losing out to an Olympian to take silver. What an achievement – something that we should all be proud of, well done Karriss Artingstall.