Minsk 2019 preview

Frazer Clarke Olympic qualifier

THE European Games begin on Friday (June 21) at the Sport Palace in Minsk, Belarus.

GB have a strong squad going with veteran super-heavyweight Frazer Clarke leading the charge. Their menโ€™s team is coming off a gruelling training camp in Kazakhstan. โ€œItโ€™s the fifth time Iโ€™ve been there,โ€ Frazer said. โ€œI donโ€™t think anyone in the worldโ€™s been to Kazakhstan five times apart from me. So I went there, I knew what it was all about, I knew you always come back from there in a good place. Itโ€™s hard training out there and thereโ€™s so many boxers. There were five [at 91kgs to spar]. They were all at a good level, it was all good competitive sparring.โ€

Looking forward to these Europeans he says, โ€œIโ€™m excited because I like the big tournaments. Itโ€™s difficult for me because Iโ€™ve been around for so long, Iโ€™ve been to every tournament about five times. The big ones are the ones that really get the juices going. So Iโ€™m really up for this one now. Iโ€™m feeling fit, sharp and mentally there.

‘Iโ€™m 100 percent and at the top of my game, thereโ€™s not many people in the world that can beat me’

Peter McGrail

โ€œThereโ€™s only a couple of big ones left, with the Worlds and the Olympics, and the qualifiers, Iโ€™m just enjoying all I can because these are going to be some of the last times Iโ€™m going to box for my country.

โ€œWeโ€™re down to the crunch, now more than ever, Iโ€™m not looking from the sidelines, Iโ€™m in the thick of it.โ€

This championship is effectively a European Olympics, a multi-sport competition which for most of the boxing team is their first event representing Team GB. Bantamweight Peter McGrail however boxed in the Youth Olympics for Great Britain and sees this tournament as a crucial step on his path to Tokyo 2020.

โ€œThereโ€™s going to a [Athleteโ€™s] Village, thereโ€™s going to be other sports there, itโ€™s going to be a good experience, Iโ€™m looking forward to enjoying it with the team,โ€ McGrail said. โ€œI can see a good few medals coming back and a few golds.โ€

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Liverpool’s Peter McGrail has won the European championships before Action Images/REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

He is confident in himself. โ€œObviously in 2017 I won [the European championships], itโ€™s similar opponents and Iโ€™ve got two years more experience and Iโ€™m feeling stronger, feeling fitter. I donโ€™t see why I canโ€™t win the gold,โ€ he said. โ€œIf [Mykola] Butsenkoโ€™s there, he was tough fight in the final out in Ukraine, I think thereโ€™s a good Russian and Kurt Walkerโ€™s going. Heโ€™s a good fighter. He caught me on an off day though when he beat me. Iโ€™ve boxed him a few times. Itโ€™s 2-1 to me.

โ€œI know that if Iโ€™m 100 percent and at the top of my game, thereโ€™s not many people in the world that can beat me.โ€

Given the turmoil with AIBA, which is the governing body for international boxing but has been suspended from running the Olympic boxing tournament itself, these Europeans do not relate to qualification for Tokyo 2020. The judging though certainly will be under scrutiny and it remains a valuable chance for the boxers to test themselves against the continentโ€™s finest in a major championship.

Two Welsh boxers make up the GB womenโ€™s team, Lauren Price at middleweight and Rosie Eccles at 69kgs. They were preparing at a camp in Germany before returning to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Eccles lost to Englandโ€™s Sandy Ryan at last yearโ€™s Commonwealth Games but she will be representing Britain in this event. โ€œItโ€™s a big opportunity, a big stage, perfect really,โ€ she said. โ€œWe had to qualify, so Sandy didnโ€™t qualify. It wasnโ€™t on selection, it was on qualification. I qualified just a year ago now. So that gives me a big opportunity in the lead up to prove my place and my value to be the one to go to Tokyo.

โ€œI feel really proud obviously to be representing Great Britain as a whole in a multi-sport Games, which is the closest Iโ€™m going to get before the Olympic Games. Exciting.โ€

Full GB line-up:

MEN

Aqeel Ahmed, 49kgs, Scotland, Kier Hardie

Galal Yafai, 52kgs, England, Birmingham City

Peter McGrail, 56kgs, England, Everton Red Triangle

Calum French, 60kgs, England, Birtley ABC

Luke McCormack, 64kgs, England, Birtley ABC

Pat McCormack, 69kgs, England, Birtley ABC

Mark Dickinson, 75kgs, England, Birtley ABC

Benjamin Whittaker, 81kgs, England, Firewalker ABC

Cheavon Clarke, 91kgs, England, Gravesham ABC

Frazer Clarke, 91&kgs, England, Burton ABC

WOMEN

Rosie Eccles, 69kgs, Wales, Pontypool Boxing Club, Pontypool

Lauren Price, 75kgs, Wales, Pontypool Boxing Club, Pontypool

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