A little bit of home cooking, and the cheers of family and friends, carried Island Boxing Club competitors deep into the Super Channel Canadian boxing championships before a packed crowd in the Bear Mountain tennis bubble.
But nothing takes the place of experience.
Anthony Varela of Island Boxing found that out as he was beaten Friday night by 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Thomas Blumenfeld of Montreal in the semifinals of the men’s 64-kilogram division. Blumenfeld showed why he is the leading Canadian candidate in the class to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I put everything I had into this and have no regrets,” said Varela of Comox, a University of Victoria double-major graduate in psychology and sociology, who settled for a national bronze medal.
“It was an honour to have the opportunity to fight a guy like Blumenfeld. I took a beating but I’ve only had 15 fights and he’s had more than 150. I can take a lot out of this experience for the future.”
Satwinder Thind of Ontario, who won bronze in the Youth Commonwealth Games in Nassau, Bahamas, defeated Brandon Colantonio of Island Boxing in the championship bout of the men’s 91-kilogram class. Colantonio, a 23-year-old Victoria carpenter, had defeated Matt Cooper of Ontario in the opening round and fellow British Columbian Nike Blackmore in the semifinals.
“I tied to pressure but it was a tough fight,” said Colantonio, of his silver-medal performance.
“I still want to be national champion and will continue to work hard.”
Terris Smith of Island Boxing was set to meet 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games gold-medallist Caroline Veyre of Montreal in the women’s 57-kilogram class gold-medal bout Friday night that had yet to be fought by press time. Smith got there by starting with a 4-1 opening-round victory over Holly Macdonald of Nova Scotia and 4-1 semifinal win against Martine Vallieres-Bisson of Quebec.
“I boxed cleanly in my earlier fights and will need to do the same in the final and remain relaxed,” said Smith, following her semifinal victory.
The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are the ultimate goal for the senior elite competitors from among the nearly 400 top amateur boxers, including youth and juniors, from across the country who have gathered atop Bear Mountain this week. It’s a long qualification process. Being crowned Canadian champion atop the Bear in the year before the Olympics certainly doesn’t hurt anybody’s chances.
Two-time Canadian heavyweight-champion Bryan Colwell of Victoria, a leading candidate for the Canadian Olympic team to Tokyo 2020, has already been selected for the 2019 Lima Pan American Games and so does not need to fight this week at nationals. The leading B.C. candidates to represent Canada in Tokyo are Colwell, 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Eric Basran of Surrey and two-time national-champion Robert Couzens of Burnaby, the latter two who were fighting on Friday night.
The boxing nationals conclude today with the final session at 1 p.m.
