There’s the adage about certain moments being when the rubber meets the road. This is about when the glove meets the chin.
Dreams of competing in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games will either continue or be dashed this week as the country’s best amateur boxers, including those from the Island, gather at the Westin Montreal for the Olympic trials that run through Saturday.
The boxers, 62 men and 35 women, advanced to the trials based on results in the 2019 Canadian championships held in April on Bear Mountain in Langford.
The winners in Montreal at the national trials for Tokyo 2020 will advance to the Americas regional Olympic qualifiers March 26 to April 3 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the champions there becoming Olympians. The last-chance, at-large world Olympic qualifier will be held May 13-24 in Paris.
Two-time Canadian champion Bryan Colwell of Sooke, who represented Canada in the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games, is favoured to continue along the Olympic qualification path in the men’s 91-kilogram class.
Other Islanders competing in the Canadian Olympic trials are Anthony Varela in men’s 69-kilogram, Brandon Colantonio in men’s 91-kilogram and Terris Smith in women’s 57-kilogram.
“It’s last man or woman standing advancing on the road to Tokyo and the Olympics,” said Jason Heit, who coaches the Victorians Varela, Colantonio and Smith.
“The draw is always a big factor.”
Former amateur and pro boxer Heit, who fought in the 1995 Pan Am Games for Canada before just missing the team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, used his old pro connections and took Varela, Colantonio and Smith to Los Angeles for a three-week training camp to get them ready for the Canadian trials.
“It’s a challenge in B.C. because you run out of people to fight, and travel across Canada is very expensive. We were able to get into three top gyms in L.A. and got in as much sparring as possible against top-level American boxers,” said Heit, one of the Island’s best-known boxing and MMA coaches.
“Our boxers got the experience they needed and their confidence is booming.”
Colwell appears to be the big story for Island boxing along the road to Tokyo 2020. But Varela, Colantonio and Smith are writing their own chapters and showed well at the national championships on home soil last spring on Bear Mountain to earn their spots in the Olympic trials.
“We are in Montreal to win. It’s as simple as that,” said Heit.
But Colantonio’s Olympic dreams died Wednesday with a quarter-final loss to Marvin Ude of Ontario in a tough decision.
“It was a close fight and I thought we had it,” said Heit.
“We are pretty stunned by the loss.”
It denied an all-Island 91-kilogram semifinal between Colantonio and Colville, the latter who had a quarter-final bye. Ude will meet top-ranked Colville today in the semifinals.
Smith and Varela were fighting in late-finishing bouts Wednesday night.
