Record number of novice fighters from Kingdom Boxing Club

It was a real achievement for the club and a testament to the coaches and officials who have overcome every problem encountered in the last difficult and challenging year to keep the club operating.

There was an incredible response to the first Boxing Scotland Novice Championships in nearly two and a half years, with 797 entries making the event the largest boxing Championships in the UK and one of the biggest in Europe.

Boxing Scotland CEO Chris Roberts OBE said: “It’s fantastic to see almost 800 entries for this year’s Novice Championships, which is significantly higher than we have ever had before.

"We look forward to welcoming clubs from across Scotland for what should be six great days of boxing across two weekends next month.

"This is another important step on the pathway to the recovery of our sport in Scotland.”

The Championships are competed over two weekends at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility, Motherwell, and Kingdom Boxing had eight boxers representing the club.

Bartosz Nowak (Bartek) narrowly lost on the first evening of boxing on Friday night in the Elite 67kg category against Kyle Brannan from Broadwood Boxing Club of Glasgow.

Schoolboy Malachi Allan lost on points in his semi-final to John Deighan of Springhill Boxing Club.

Club mates and sparring partners, junior boxers Dylan Gray and DJ Cathie were drawn against each other and after three hard fought rounds it was Dylan who came out on top and went forward to box against Josh Patterson of Shire Boxing Club on Sunday but unfortunately lost in a close fought contest.

Youth boxer James Fish was next to represent the Club in the 75kg weight division and had his hand raised beating Robert Donald of Brechin Boxing Club by unanimous decision and progresses to the next round of the tournament this coming weekend.

Elite boxers David Fleming 63.5kg (Cat.A), Alex Mackay 71kg (Cat.A) and James McLaren 75kg (Cat.B) all won their bouts and will also box again this weekend along with Daryl Gray Elite 71kg (CatB) and JM Crombie Youth 67kg who both received byes to the next rounds.

Junior schoolgirl Taniesha Hatton and Elite boxer Robert Forrester made up the Kingdom dozen.

Taniesha was the only entry at her age and weight class so had no opponent to compete against and Robert had to withdraw from the tournament due to illness.