The 2019 Super Channel National Boxing Championships, which concluded at the Bear Mountain tennis bubble Saturday, showed there could be a few Canadian amateur pugilists capable of making deep runs at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Island Boxing Club came away from the nationals with two silver medals and a bronze medal in front of boisterous supporters. That final step to the top of the podium is always the hardest. Especially for this Island Club group, which is promising, but inexperienced.
“Once they got to the semifinals and finals, they were facing boxers with international experience,” said Island Club head coach Jason Heit. “Would we have liked three gold medals? Of course, we would. But all three of my fighters had less than 15 career bouts each. There’s a big difference in experience between that and someone who has had 150 fights.”
Heit knows the only way to get experience is by fighting. He is a former national team boxer, who fought in the Pan Am Games, before turning pro after just missing the Canadian team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Veteran Caroline Veyre of Montreal, a 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games gold medallist, ended the women’s 57-kilo championship bout in the second round by stopping Terris Smith of Island Club with a technical knockout.
“I’m happy with my silver medal now, but I will be returning next year and I will be better,” said B.C. champion Smith, a 25-year-old Langford accountant.
“It was only my 12th fight. I know I need more experience and I have to be quicker.”
Island Club-mate Brandon Colantonio, a 23-year-old Victoria carpenter, took the silver medal in the men’s 91-kilo class after losing in the final to the punishing Satwinder Thind of Ontario.
“I tried to pressure him but it was a tough fight,” Colantonio said. “I still want to be national champion and will continue to work hard.”
B.C. runner-up Anthony Varela of Island Boxing was beaten by 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver medallist Thomas Blumenfeld of Montreal in the semifinals of the men’s 64-kilo division. Blumenfeld showed why he is the leading Canadian candidate in the division to make the Olympic team for Tokyo.
“I put everything I had into this and have no regrets,” said Comox-product Varela, a University of Victoria 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 [the championship bout was stopped with five seconds remaining in the final round] but I’ve only had 15 fights and he has had more than 150. I can take a lot out of this experience.”
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, so did not need to fight at the nationals.
