The Army Boxing Team entered a team of eight Boxers in to the Eindhoven International Box Cup over the weekend of 19 – 21 Oct. By the finals day the Army still had four Boxers contesting finals
- Cpl Alanna Nihell v Anastasia Beliakova – A strong showing from the Army Team Captain against the 2016 World Champion who took the win on points, Alanna remains confident and upbeat and continues to chase a spot on the Northern Ireland team for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April 2018.
- LCpl Megan Reid v Alexandra Ordina – Megan a current Scottish International found herself in the final against another Russian of great boxing pedigree 2016 European and Russian Champion. Reid lost out in this final but gained a huge amount of experience and confidence to be able to live with boxers of Ordina’s standard.
- Cpl Stephanie Wroe v Christina Desmond – Desmond another high quality opponent as a European Bronze Medallist from 2016 again nicked the win against the Army’s Wroe on a Split Points decision.
- LCpl Chez Nihell v Dean Gardiner – A strong win from the Army Super Heavy Weight to take the title in this International Competition.
Overall a fantastic showing from the Army who are building on their fantastic success from last season and now operating on the same footing as a small National Team.
ATR Winchester, hosted the annual match between The Army Boxing Team and the Southern Counties. The team match featured six bouts between the ABT and boxers from the Southern Counties region, supported by one all Army Bout. Three of the ABT Boxers who boxed in Winchester had only just returned from the Eindhoven Box Cup, a testament to their training, commitment and professionalism. Leading the way Team Captain Cpl Alanna Nihell, 27 Regt RLC; boxing for the third time in seven days. The ABT won the Fixture 6-0, far from having all their own way the Army boxers were pushed to the final bell in all the bouts.
Pte Love, 2 R Ang, in tough contest against Xunis Batti, an experienced international boxer – was awarded the Best Boxer Award; the bout all action from the opening bell finished with the Army boxer taking a split decision victory.
(Winners in bold) – Video action from the day.
- Cpl Nihell – RLC vs Xian Blackman-Price (Light welter) – Army Unanimous win
- Cpl Burton – Scots vs Brandon Davis (Light welter) – Army split win
- Gnr Thapa – RA vs Danny Robinson (Light welter) – Army unanimous win
- Pte Love – R Ang vs Xunis Batti (Welter) – Army Split win
- Rfn White – Rifles vs Tpr Bracken – Lancers (Light Welter) – Blue unanimous win
- LCpl Holmes – RLC vs Connor Sandy (Heavy) – Red unanimous win
- LCpl Ngwenya – Gren Gds vs Bryce Goodridge (Heavy) – Red unanimous win
The Army Boxing Team and Association remains extremely grateful for your support; our successes would simply not be possible with it, thank you.
Nathan Pearce
Army Boxing