Amateur boxing’s Canadian strongholds have been the Halifax area, Toronto and Quebec.
Now B.C. states its case on the road to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The annual B.C. Emerald Gloves takes place tonight and Saturday in the dryland arena at City Park Centre in Langford. It’s the precursor to the 2019 Super Channel Canadian boxing championships to be held from April 23-27 in the Bear Mountain tennis bubble, which will be the first national qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
“We used to average one boxer on the national team and now we have eight up to that level,” said Bob Pegues of Nanaimo, head coach of the B.C. team.
Of the leading candidates to represent Canada in Tokyo are 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Eric Basran of Surrey, Robert Couzens of Burnaby and two-time Canadian heavyweight champion Bryan Colwell of Sooke.
It will be like old home week for Colwell, 28, whose original sporting ambition was to play for the University of Victoria Vikes on the pitch. The former soccer player will stay on the Island to box in the B.C. Emerald Gloves this weekend and again in the national championships in April.
Colwell hopes to follow a notable Canadian amateur tradition in the heavier Olympic classes, which includes Willie DeWit and David Defiagbon winning heavyweight silver at Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996, respectively, and Lennox Lewis the superheavyweight gold medal at Seoul in 1988.
The Island produces numerous Olympians in a variety of sports, but the last boxer to qualify was Donnie Orr of Victoria at Sydney 2000.
“We are trying to rebuild amateur boxing on the Island,” Pegues said.
“We have eight or nine clubs and it’s coming back nicely.”
That will be evident this weekend as Island and other B.C. boxers will be joined by others from as far as Edmonton and Portland in the provincial Emerald Gloves, the sub-event leading to the upcoming 80th annual B.C. Golden Gloves in Richmond.
More than 60 amateur boxers are expected this weekend in Langford.
“We’ve had an excellent response,” Pegues said.
Among the emerging boxers to watch is 16-year-old Sam Lowden of Victoria in the light-heavyweight class.
Doors open at 6 p.m. both tonight and Saturday with boxing beginning at 7 p.m. There will be a 1 p.m. card Saturday as well.
Tickets at the door are $25 for the evening cards and $10 for the afternoon. A weekend pass costs $40.
