Clubs strike gold at Scottish Open
Durie’s ABC boasts two champions in ranks
Rutherglen and Cambuslang boxing clubs both struck gold at the Scottish Open Championships.
Durie’s ABC can boast having two Scottish champions in their ranks, while two other members got their hands on silvers at the competition held at the Ravenscraig Sports Facility in Motherwell.
Shahzman Parnez, 13, secured his third straight Scottish title by defeating Southside Boxing Academy’s Csaba Szilagyi.
The Stonelaw High School pupil took the bout by unanimous decision, 5-0, to add to his Western District triumph two weeks previously.
Euan Caldwell overcame 2017’s winner of the 42kg contest, Will Porter, of Keir Hardie BC. The 13-year-old Rutherglen lad rose to the occasion and used solid left jabs to great effect and also moved in and out with fast feet. He scored highly with solid backhand shots throughout the three rounds to win his first Scottish title having just had eight contests so far.
Edinburgh club boxer, Lewis Robertson, received a standing eight count in the second round of his semi-final fight with Durie’s Raja Rahman, who took the bout by unanimous decision.
Cambuslang’s Lewis Millar, 10, started his contest with a good strong pace which caught his aggressive Aberdeen opponent, John Cole Reynolds, off guard.
He used solid back hand rights in the first round and continued this in the second before the referee gave a standing eight count and awarded Lewis the victory.
Ten-year-old Saif Akram narrowly lost out to Ayrshire boxer Jake Paton while Rutherglen’s Brandon Grant, 13, and William Williamson failed to land many shots on each other. But the hand of the Aberdeen fighter was held high by the referee on this occasion.
Having had a successful few days on February 24 and 25, a delighted head coach, Archie Durie, said: “What a weekend for our club. We had six boxers entered with three boxing and all winning in the Saturday semi-finals.
“Then the next day we had six of our boxers in action taking two gold medals, two silvers and our last two winning into the overspill finals.
“Overall we had nine fights over the weekend with seven wins.”
The overspill finals involving Raja and Lewis are due to be held on Saturday, March 10 in Motherwell during the Elite Championship event.
Meanwhile, Cambuslang boxing club O’Neils could celebrate Taylor McMahon’s victory in the 31kg final bout. Fellow member Bradley Welsh had to be retired in his corner while Kai Burrell and Conner MacCabe were both unlucky to lose by split decisions.