Canty boxers bag nine national titles
The Canterbury boxing team has celebrated one of their most successful national tournaments with nine gold medals after an earlier successful raid at the Australian Golden Gloves championships.
Canterbury returned from Australia in late August with 11 gold medals and two silvers and carried their winning form in last week’s New Zealand championships in Rotorua.
Red-and-black boxers brought home nine golds in the elite, junior and cadet grades and four silver medals to take the trophy for the tournament’s most successful team.
To cap a golden weekend, seasoned Canterbury coach Phil Shatford was made a life member of the New Zealand Boxing Coaches Association.
‘‘It’s probably one of the best years we’ve ever had,’’ Canterbury co-coach and Canterbury Boxing Association president Julian Scully said. ’’The old golds kept on rolling in.’’
Super-heavyweight Sam Watt, who won his fourth national title, said the team’s success was his highlight.
’’It was probably one of the best outcomes for a Canterbury team since going back to the glory days of Reece Papunui and Bowyn Morgan. It was pretty hard to stay focused on the night because you wanted to celebrate everyone’s success.’’
Watt won the elite men’s 92kg title, Sunny Teki-Clark took the 81kg crown, Rendz Remaneses the 56kg title and Ryan Entese the 52kg gold medal.
Tyler Rodgers winning the 80kg elite women’s title by default with no other fighters willing to get in the ring with her.
Kaelan Boyce triumphed in the 56kg youth division.
Canterbury’s cadet grade gold medallists included Leon Gibson (36kg), Izyah Hesp (50kg) and Daniel Meehan (57kg).
Hamuera Tainui (cadet, 57kg), Jarrod Gear-Ngatai (junior 70kg), Bree Cummings (elite women, 64kg) and Sam Burdett-Clark (elite men, 64kg) were Canterbury’s semifinalists.
Remaneses, Meehan, Hesp, Boyce, Cummings, Rodgers, Sophie Mullaly, Sione Vaka, Thomas Hanford, Oliver Bristowe and Finn Murphy were Canterbury’s Australian Golden Gloves champions and Burdett-Clark and Taylor Cameron brought silver medals home from the Brisbane tournament.
Scully, who coached the Canterbury team with Mark Fuller, said the performances in Brisbane and Rotorua showed Canterbury boxing was in good heart.
Watt said the medals hauls ‘‘reflects well on the Canterbury association, as a whole’’.
‘‘The club coaches aren’t following their own personal agendas for their own fighters. It’s a very harmonious group.’’
Watt said he got more joy out of watching ‘‘guys I consider pretty good friends, winning titles’’ than his own success.
‘‘I got the easy way out this year. I probably got an easy draw, so I’m not celebrating as much as I would. Hopefully, there are bigger things to come and some opportunities ahead.’’
The 25-year-old had a unanimous points decision in his final over South Auckland’s Mohe Fa to win the ABA Trophy.
He is hoping to make the New Zealand development team for a tournament in Samoa in November and would like another fight against 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games fighter Patrick Malaita to press his own claims for a possible place at the 2018 Games on the Gold Coast.
The pair met ‘‘at two weeks’ notice’’ earlier this year in a boxoff for an Oceania Games squad place with Malaita - who was on his way to compete in the World Boxing Series for the British Lionhearts - winning on points.
Watt felt he ‘‘went pretty well’’ considering the limited buildup and ‘‘would like another crack’’.
He said Malaita got some good results in the WBS, including knocking out a Kazakshtan opponent. ‘‘It was good to see someone I’d competed against and been competitive with doing well on the world stage.’’
When Watt won his 2016 title, he was contemplating whether to continue in the sport. At the time, he was living in Ashburton and and travel to and from Christchurch for training was proving arduous on top of his chartered accountancy career and his rugby commitments with the Celtic club and Mid Canterbury representative team.
But his situation changed after his Ashburton employer sold the business. Watt returned to Christchurch and now works for the Canterbury Rugby Union as a financial accountant.