Luke’s golden punch in the championships
Perth boxer is tipped for further success this season
A young Perth boxer is making an impression on the national circuit after an eye-opening performance at the Scottish Novice Championships.
Perth Railway Boxing member Luke Bibby, competing in the 60kg junior boys category, defeated Christopher Fleming of Kingdom Boxing by unanimous decision to clinch gold.
The prestigious event was held at Ravenscraig in North Lanarkshire and was one to remember for the North Methven Street based club.
Coupled with Luke’s success, there were two silver medal winners with Liam Roy in the 70kg junior boy and Jamie Dewar in the 75kg youth.
Secretary and coach at Perth Railway, Stuart Campbell, said: “It was our best medal haul at the event. Luke was different class and is ready to go up to another level.
“Luke missed the event last year because of holiday and has had an eye on this prize since last season.
“We encourage the guys to have confidence at this club.
“You need to have confidence in your own ability and go out to be in charge.
“He was so comfortable, nice and relaxed and looked fantastic. We’ve always known he has had that in him because he’s a hard worker and puts the effort in.
“Some guys have it and others don’t. Luke is a natural. He’s been doing the local five kilometre Perth parkrun on a Saturday too and is running 18 minutes. So the hard work is paying off.”
Coaches at the club have high hopes for the 16-year-old and now plan to increase his number of appearances in a bid to build experience.
“We’re hopeful that he will shine this season,” Stuart said. “Hopefully we can get Luke boxing every three weeks. That’s what they need in order to compete with the guys in the Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs.
“It’s like anything else, you need to sacrifice. The harder the work the luckier you’ll get. And we feel if Luke is putting the effort in, then we need to as well.
“We have a guy called Alan Stewart on board who has stepped forward as a delegate to train as a judge. And we have more coaches coming on board.
“These are guys who will try to help us get to more shows. Because it’s voluntary, we struggle to keep the guys busy all of the time. That’s maybe where we fall behind compared to the west coast.
“This is the busiest start to a season and it’s been promising, for recreational boxing too.”
Coach Gary Wilson added: “I’d
Luke Bibby won gold at the Scottish Novice Championships be surprised if Luke doesn’t now win the Intermediates. The plan is to compete in the Intermediates and Open category in one season - that’s a big deal.
“There won’t be many clubs in Scotland who have someone to win the Novice, Intermediates and then box in the Open. It’s a target for Luke.”
Perth Railway are set to lose the services of promising boxer Lewis Henderson, who will join the Paras in January.
Stuart said: “Lewis is still at the club until January but we’ve managed to get him carded and he’ll be boxing in Aberdeen in November. We will be gutted to lose him.”