JUNIOR BOXING
Welsh Junior Boxing Championships
Talented Cardigan Boxing Club twins Garan and Ioan Croft both lifted Welsh Junior titles on the weekend at the Welsh Boxing Championships and they will now head to the GB championships later next month.
Ioan was up against Ethan Bull of Pantside BC in the final and the West Wales boxer was in a confident mood having already beaten his opponent twice before.
Bull came out on the bell seemingly in a rush to get on with it and it was a little untidy for the first half minute or so but then Ioan found his space and gave Bull a boxing lesson, on his front foot for the whole of the fight Ioan picked his shots at will while the Pantside boxer struggled to land a single clean shot and Ioan won by a unanimous decision, this win at 52kgs his fifth Welsh title.
Garan then boxed Mahmoud Abdi of Grange Catholic and this was set to be a difficult contest as Abdi is a tall rangy boxer and very difficult to nail down. However Garan took control from the start quickly getting through Mahmoud’s rangy defence to land a good right followed quickly by a cracking left hook which set Mahmood on the back foot for a lot of the fight, every time he came at Garan he was punished by lovely sharp accurate jabs and the occasional right bomb.
Garan according to his coach and dad Guy Croft ‘slipped a little into his comfort zone in the third round but still managed to pick Mahmoud off with some lovely jabs but he was not using his right hand enough, however saying that, he boxed beautifully, staying in control and dictating the pace,’ winning the 54 kgs category unanimously and securing his sixth Welsh title.
Speaking after both his boys had come through for Welsh titles Croft senior who was understandably very proud said:” I had stressed to the boys how important it was not just to win but to box well and look good as the Welsh coaches and Chris Type the Welsh performance director were in attendance, assessing the boxers with a view to selecting athletes for future tournaments.
Both Garan and Ioan will now be a part of a Welsh team that will be heading for Ireland next week which will be an ideal warm up for the GB championships in April.
