THE finals for Scotland’s Elite Boxing championships are all set. The event takes place on Saturday (April 9) at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility in Motherwell. Boxing starts at 7pm. Standing floor tickets will be available to purchase on the evening for £25. A table seat is £55 and a table for 10 people is £500. To purchase, email enquiries@boxingscotland.org.
The semi-finals of the Elite championships were completed on March 26.
The admirable Kieran McMaster, who works as a youth mentor as well as a coach while boxing himself, was one of the boxers to book their place in the final. McMaster, from the North West boxing club, beat Nicholas Devlin to set up his lightweight final with Dylan Arbuckle, who overcame Kyle McNiel.
“That meant the world to me. I’ve been boxing 15 years, that was my 106th fight and it was the first time I’ve made it to the finals of the Elites,” McMaster said. “This is what I’ve trained for all my life, to get to those finals. I’m so thankful I got the decision, it was close.
“I want to win the Scottish Elites, that’s been my goal since I was 10. If I can do that, who knows, I might box for Scotland. That’s not in my plans, I just want this Elite gold and that is it.”
He goes into schools and takes sessions for groups of vulnerable children. “My job title is a sports mentor,” he explained. “A big part of that is because I’m an athlete. I’m able to go to these young people and say look at me, I’m doing this. I’m from Kilmarnock. I’m no different from any of those kids that I work with.
“It’s vital. It’s good that we’ve got some young people, some young kids that are here supporting me today, who boxed for North West, who I worked with in the schools, so you can see that cycle.”
The Elite finalists will get the offer of an assessment with the Scottish squad. Barrhead’s Caitlin Greaves, who went through to the women’s lightweight final after beating Farah Jamil, is one of those looking for a place on the team. “What I set out to do is hopefully one day represent my country. It’s my first season with Barrhead, the coaches have been brilliant, every single one of them. I’m really looking forward to [the assessment] and we’ll see what happens. It’s brilliant. It’s a great achievement even to make an Elite final. So buzzing,” she said.
RESULTS
SCOTLAND ELITE SEMI-FINALS: 50: Megan Gordon bt Kelsey Hughes. 54: Conor Hynd w/o; Steven Ferguson bt Stuart Nicholls; Stephanie Kernachan bt Dionne Pollard. 57: Peter Paton bt Fawaz Aborode; Pete Oswald bt Declan Reilly. 60: Dylan Arbuckle bt Kyle McNiel; Kieran McMaster bt Nicholas Devlin; Caitlin Greaves bt Farah Jamil; Shelly MacDonald w/o. 63.5: Colin Cairney bt Martin Kerr; Charlie Doig bt Ross Arix. 66: Shannon Lawson w/o. 67: Aurel Szilagyi bt Waseem Anaib; Matthew McDonald bt Lewis Kerr. 71: Ross McAllister bt Marc Johnstone; Harry McGrenra w/o. 75: Olivier Kasasula bt Kris Nesbitt; Arran Devine bt Kieran Bergin. 80: Alex Arthur bt Sam Cane; Robert McNulty bt Jack Swaney. 86: Ronald Devlin bt Jamie Buchanan; Robert Muir w/o. 92&: Ayman Amish bt Nathan Tarr; Connal McDonald bt Gary Fairgrieve.
