Last updated: 08/02/08
English universities finest meet in championships

Three days of fierce competition at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield saw the best boxers England’s universities have to offer slug it out.

The English Universities Boxing Championships offered boxers from around the country the chance to fight for 14 different gold and silver medals, spread across the different weights and classes. There were 4 champions to be decided in the men’s open class division, for boxers who had fought in ten bouts or more, and 10 champions in the men’s novice division, open to those who had competed in less than ten fights. There was also one gold medal for female novice boxers.

The first medal of the championship was decided on the second day of the competition, Saturday December 8, as Oxford’s Becky Lee claimed a points victory over Danielle Tapitake of London School of Economics (LSE), securing gold in the women’s bantam-weight division.

Suraj Popat of Portsmouth university was awarded the gold medal in the men’s novice light-flyweight division due to the absence of any other competitors in this field. Ali Massally of Kingston and Joe Dome from Leeds Met fought for the gold in the men’s novice bantam-weight division and the referee stopped the contest (RSC) in the third round as Dome was outclassed. The story was the same in the next final, between featherweights James Connor of Portsmouth and Sanjay Mistry of Nottingham; Connor winning by RSC in the second. Saturday’s last novice final saw Coventry’s Amit Keshvala outpoint Cambridge’s Tares Gout.

The men’s open class division also had three finals on the Saturday. Tom Langford of Birmingham became the light-welterweight champion with a points victory over Jonathan Cosgrove of Bolton. Birmingham picked up a second successive gold as middleweight Patrick Benson outpointed Sunderland’s Andrew Burton. The welterweight final was the last of the day and Chichester’s Lloyd Ellet’s hand was raised as he defeated David Torku of Portsmouth.

Sunday opened with a men’s open class final to decide the lightweight champion and Staffordshire’s Naz Rafique secured gold with a points victory over Conrey Gaynor of Sussex. Six men’s novice champions were then decided as the championships drew to a close. Coventry won two golds as light-welterweight Jason Cuddy and welterweight James Nugent defeated Birmingham’s Felix Kelly and LSE’s Christopher Baugh respectively. The middleweight final was decided on points as Gareth Bowkett of Sussex beat Liam Cutler of Leeds Met.

The big boys fought it out in the last three finals as the light-heavyweight, cruiserweight and super heavyweight champions were decided.

Kingston picked up two of the three titles as Emmanuele Ahonsi won the light-heavyweight crown with a points victory over Paul Grennel of Coventry and Francis Nortey was declared super heavyweight champion after winning on points against Mizengo Sikombe of Sheffield Hallam.

The final championship bout saw Leeds university fighter Pete Baldwin defeat Cambridge’s Artem Korolev.

Coventry University enjoyed the greatest success at the championships, earning four medals. The University of Portsmouth, the University of Birmingham and Kingston University, London saw their fighters collect three medals each.

by George Kotschy