Binskin bid for final thwarted

Boxing

Wingham’s young boxing sensation, Blake Binskin, made it to the semi-finals of a national competition before finally meeting his match and losing a close encounter on a split points decision. Binskin, 17, got through to the under52kg National Association of Boys and Girls Clubs semi-finals after beating Arnie Dawson from Essex and Southern Area Youth belt holder Uzair Maqbool from east London to become the Southern and Eastern Counties regional champion. The youngster, who lives at Wingham Wildlife Park, has only been boxing competitively for two years and since moving to PEJ ABC Margate in November 2017 has had a series of successes,including a b r o nz e medal a t t he Nati o na l Developments and a gold at the Haringey Box Cup.

The Canterbury College student travelled to Bristol for his semi-final fight against the Welsh and Western Counties champion, Patrick Hastie from Trowbridge, on November 23.

His father Scott said: “Blake shouldn’t have lost the fight, it was a split points decision that could have gone either way. “Blake started slowly but then got in to it, the first round went to Patrick, the second round was very close and then Blake won the third round comfortably.

“It was tough on Blake having to travel all day to his opponent’s backyard but it was a great achievement to get to the semifinals.”

The next big challenge for Binskin is to get to the England Boxing National Youth Championships in February 2020 at Sport Connections in Coventry where the national title belts are up for grabs. His father added: “Blake is boxing well at the moment and always improving, he’s won seven of his last eight fights but the National Youths will be a tough test because he could have to box three days in a row.”