PUT THE KETLEY ON

Owen named the best youth in Spain

OWEN KETLEY was named Best Youth Boxer at the Boxam tournament in Spain.

The 2022 European Youth champion was one of 10 gold medallists for Great Britain at a tournament for juniors, youths and under-22s, held in La Nucia.

Ketley secured gold at under54 kgs with three wins.

The southpaw overwhelmed Izan Jimenez (Spain) inside a round and then stopped Fawaz Alluhaybi (Saudi Arabia) in the last four to set up a final against Cory Jones (Wales).

Ketley won that unanimously and beamed afterwards: “I felt great the entire tournament. I was relaxed, calm and picked the shots nicely. I took my time and everything fell into place.”

Ketley was edged by Denaeo George in the Youth final earlier this year and George also struck gold in Spain, celebrating his 18th birthday early by racing to the top of the rostrum at under57kgs with three stoppages.

The southpaw from City of Leicester Lightning barely wasted a punch.

The 2019 European Schools Champion started with a tworound stoppage of Muhammed Almuwallad (Saudi Arabia), handing him two counts, and made short work of Manuel Martinez (Spain) in the semi finals, forcing another secondround stoppage. Another second-round finish, over Diego Nieves Ortiz (Puerto Rico), provided an exclamation-mark in the final.

George had already handed Ortiz two counts when he dropped his hands invitingly to draw him in. They both landed punches simultaneously and the Puerto Rican stumbled, leading the referee to wave the bout off.

World Champion Amber Moss-birch was also in no mood to hang around, claiming top spot at over 82kgs with backto-back stoppages.

She hit too hard for Carla Pineiro (Spain) and Daniela Golai (Spain), stopping them in the first and second rounds, respectively.

Emanuel Buttigieg looked very sharp on his way to gold at under-75kgs, sinking to his knees in joy after it was announced he had beaten Aleksandrs Dmitrijevs (Latvia) in the final.

In the under-22 category, Hamza Uddin, the NAC flyweight champion, also won golf for England.

Uddin, making his debut for England, won a 3-2 split over Scott Richards (Wales) to reach the final where he bamboozled Eric Gomez (Spain) on the way to a unanimous points win, slipping and sliding around his Spanish opponent and potshotting from all angles.

Lucy Kings-wheatley

(Acocks Green) was another gold medallist in the under-22 category, stopping Spain’s Julia Cobeno inside two rounds in the under-60kgs final.

There were also gold medals for youth boxers Lauren Mackie

(under 52kgs), Amy Nolan

(under-66kgs), John-tom Varey

(under48kgs), Hamilton Joyce

(under-60kgs), Ellis Panter

(under-67kgs) and Conor Mccormack (under-86kgs).