No doubt all Australian sports enthusiasts watched the Olympic Games athletes represent their country with great pride and passion, none more so than our boxing team. Harry Garside got the team off to a winning start with victory over PNG’s John Ume in their preliminary bout. Harry’s hand speed, movement and technical superiority enabled him to begin his medal quest with a very comfortable unanimous decision. Next to compete was Alex Winwood who was drawn against a tall tricky opponent from Zambia in the preliminary round. Alex started rather slowly and found himself behind on all the judges scorecards as his opponent began with a much better work rate to take the first round. The second round was quite different as Alex stalked and probed his way back into the fight landing a number of eye-catching punches and combinations. The third round was an exciting battle with Alex just failing to match the intensity of his foe at crucial points that just gave his opponent the winning edge. Skye Nicolson managed to get the team back on track later in the same session by making easy work of a very awkward and tricky former World Youth Champion from Korea with a show of great skill and dominance.

A very frustrating and truly heartbreaking day for the team began with Caitlin Parker coming up against the very tall former Elite World 69kg Champion southpaw from Panama, Atheyna Bylon. Caitlin failed to get the nod from any of the judges after a very even first round which could have gone either way. Needing to press more often and with greater urgency led to an intense battle in the ring much appreciated by those watching but with still little by way of reward from the judges. Despite a valiant effort in the final round Caitlin exited the tournament at the first hurdle. The second Australian boxer in to the ring was Paulo Aokuso making his Olympic debut against Spain’s Gazi Jalidov. Paulo’s uncanny ability to expertly block and parry punches whilst landing clean counters of his own was somehow missed by 3 of the five judges appointed to score the bout and meant that Aokuso was harshly on the losing side of a 3-2 split decision. The day’s evening session witnessed a performance of great maturity and some considerable skill from Skye Nicolson against the well fancied Great Britain boxer, Kariss Artingstall. Fox Sports’ report of the fight said ‘Skye Nicolson also came close, only to cop a shocking decision from the judges (we might be biased on this one but trust me – it was a howler). She broke down in tears as she apologised to Australia for missing a medal.’ Many fight fans both at home and in the audience shared the view that Skye had easily done enough to earn herself a place in history, but it wasn’t to be.

That place in history was taken up by Victorian Harry Garside who ‘danced his way to a superb bronze in the lightweight division, ending a 33-year wait for a medal’ with a tremendous quarter final victory against Zakir Safiullin of Kazakhstan. An excellent performance in the semi final against arguably the current pound for pound best amateur boxer in the world, Cuba’s Andy Cruz, wasn’t enough to take him through to the final.

The National Futures Program presented State Futures camps in Western Australia and South Australia during August, with some great sessions and presentations being led by the State Futures coaches and home coaches.

The anticipated July-August 2021 National Elite Futures camp at the AIS was cancelled due to the current COVID-19 outbreaks around the country. 

Coach Jamie Pittman has been keeping the Futures athletes engaged by:

• Regular social media posts
• Quarantine / lockdown conditioning programs
• Sport specific PowerPoint presentations
• Video analysis, self and circuit assessment sheets
• Q/A Zoom sessions

Pending COVID-19 restrictions, the Futures Program has State and National camp dates set for later in the year.

Because of the varying restrictions on daily life across Australia, the varying prohibitions on interstate/territory travel, the closure of gyms in some States/Territory, the inability of some Member Associations to conduct tournaments and for their boxers to be competition fit, the quarantine requirements in some States/Territories for travellers and, in particular, the overall Pandemic situations in NSW, ACT and Victoria, the Board of Boxing Australia has cancelled the 2021 Australian Elite Championships and 2021 Australian Under 19/17/15/13 Years of Age Championships.

Boxing Australia will support Boxing South Australia in hosting in Adelaide in the period around 19-21 November 2021 a national tournament open to those able to travel and who are entered by their Member Association. Details of this tournament will be provided when they are developed.

Presently the next scheduled Boxing Australia national tournament is the Australian Commonwealth Games Boxing Team Selection Trials to be conducted in early April, 2022.

BANT have two forthcoming events:

• NT Titles – Fri 15 and Sat 16 October 2021
• Red Desert Dust Up in Alice Springs – Sat 23 October 2021

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