North London club hope for more national success
Islington Boxing Club will have three boxers compete in the final stages of the National Elite Championships this weekend.
Mason Smith (under-60kg), Amy Broadhurst (under-60kg) and Cherrelle Brown (under-64kg) will travel with coaches up to Rotherham on Thursday, ahead of the weigh-in and draw on Friday.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the former ABAs will all be held at the Magna Centre, with Smith named the number one seed at lightweight by the Great Britain team.
Smith is hoping to become the first senior male from Islington to win the Elite title since Courtney Fry took the light-heavyweight (under-81kg) crown in 1996.
Light-welterweight Brown is the defending woman’s champion, having lifted the title at Liverpool’s Echo Arena last year and also in 2015 at the same venue.
And 14-time Irish champion Broadhurst is hoping for success at lightweight level as she enters the English Elites for the first time, having recently been beaten in the semi-finals of the Elite Championships in Ireland.
*Islington BC members had mixed fortunes at the White Hart Lane ABC show on Saturday.
Under-42kg Harry Betteridge, 13, took part in his seventh skills contest against Dagenham’s Peter Kerrigan and gained more valuable experience ahead of his first competitive outing.
Conrad Francis returned to the ring for his first bout since September, against Angbaya N’Dilli of Stonebridge.
But both welterweights failed to find their best form in a frustrating contest, which went the way of N’Dilli on a split decision.
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