World Stage Next Stop for National Boxing Champions

This weekend the National Cadet Championships and Senior Female National Team Trials were hosted in St. Catharines and Ontario had yet another strong showing.  The Cadet team (15-16 year olds) captured 5 Gold Medals, 6 Silver Medals, and 5 Bronze medals to cap off a spectacular weekend.  The Senior Females followed up their impressive performance in January by winning 5 out of 6 bouts this weekend and qualifying 6 women for Canada’s National Team.

The National Female Team will feature a dominant cast of Ontario’s greats, including defending World Champion Jennifer Ogg (Lambton) and National Champions Jacqui Park (Toronto), Rachel Bird (Waterloo), Debbie Richards (London), Agnes Kittoe (Hamilton), and Mary Spencer (Windsor).  These athletes will represent Canada at the Tourneo Italia World Tournament in Rome from June 3-7, 2004 and will attend the first-ever Women’s Pan-American Tournament in Argentina in November. They also hope to participate in a Women’s World Championships in 2005 and perhaps the Olympics in 2008.

The World Cadet Championships in 2005 represent the next big step for Ontario’s cadet boxers.  After winning only one Gold Medal in 2003, Team Ontario seized five Gold Medals this year.  The team was led by Jerome Gabriel of Motor City Boxing Club in Oshawa, who captured Gold in the 52kg division and was honoured as Best Male Boxer.  Jerome is a 4-Time Ontario Champion and last year fell short in claiming a silver medal.  This year he came back with a crushing victory over Chad Weibe of Manitoba, needing only two rounds before the referee stopped the bout.  Other notable winners included Jeff Boyd of Ring London in London and Joey Bowman of Champs Eastside boxing in Cornwall.  Jeff defeated Jean-Philippe Fraser of Quebec 11-8 in one the most exciting bouts of the weekend.  Joey had lost four previous times to Mikael Zewski of Quebec before defeating him 10-9 in a great match for the Gold Medal.  Joey is also the first National Champion from Cornwall since 1929!

Congratulations to all members of the Ontario Cadet Team on an outstanding performance!

St. Catharines – National Senior Female Team Trials Results

46 kg Jacqui Park Ontario Cabbagetown
48 kg Nancy Fortin Quebec  
50 kg Agnes Kittoe Ontario McGrory’s
52 kg Natalie Forget Quebec  
54 kg Sandra Bizier Quebec  
57 kg Debbie Richards Ontario Boom Boom’s
60 kg Jennifer Ogg Ontario Lambton
63 kg Rachel Bird Ontario Waterloo
66 kg Mary Spencer Ontario Windsor
70 kg Ariane Fortin Quebec  
75 kg Shannah Hook New Brunswick