One Welshman and nine English boxers from Tyne & Wear, Birmingham, Derby, Manchester, Cambridgeshire, Colchester and Greater London will have the opportunity to secure a place at Paris 2024 at qualifier in March
GB Boxing has selected six men and four women to compete at the forthcoming Olympic qualifying event in, Busto Arsizio (near Milan), in Italy, 4-11 March 2023, where the boxers will have the opportunity to secure qualification for this Summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
59 places at Paris 2024 are on offer at the event in Italy which will include male and female boxers from around the world. It will be overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is officially known as the ‘1st World Qualification Tournament’.
It is the second qualifying opportunity for boxers from Great Britain after last summer’s Europe Qualification Tournament at The European Games in Krakow, Poland, where three members of the GB Boxing squad, Charley Davison (women’s 54kg), Rosie Eccles (women’s 66kg) and Delicious Orie (men’s 92kg+) secured places at Paris 2024.
The third and final qualifying opportunity for boxers to make it to Paris will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 26 May – 2 June 2024.
The six male selections for the event in Italy include Kiaran MacDonald at flyweight (51kg), featherweight (57kg) Jack Dryden and Taylor Bevan at light-heavyweight (80kg) who are all getting a second opportunity having competed at the first qualifier in Poland.
The other three men on the team, light-welterweight (63.5kg), Patris Mughalzai, light-middleweight (71kg), Lewis Richardson, and heavyweight (92kg), Patrick Brown, have been selected after impressing at recent tournaments including the “World Boxing Cup: GB Open” which was held in Sheffield last week.
At the events in Sheffield, Mughalzai and Brown both won gold while Richardson secured silver and only lost out narrowly in the final to the 2023 European Games champion, Nikolai Terteryan from Denmark, who has already qualified for Paris and will not be present in Italy.
The four female selections are Savannah Stubley (50kg), Elise Glynn (57kg), Shona Whitwell (60kg) and Chantelle Reid (75kg).
All four competed last week in Sheffield, where Stubley and Whitwell won gold and Glynn secured silver. Middleweight, Chantelle Reid, won bronze at the event and did enough in her two bouts to impress the GB Boxing selectors with a third-round stoppage of Germany’s Irina Schonberger in her quarter-final and a creditable loss in her semi against the eventual winner, Cindy Ngamba.
Ngamba, who trains with the GB Boxing squad in Sheffield as a ‘sparring partner’ will also compete at the qualifier in Italy where she will represent the IOC Refugee Team. Ngamba will travel and share accommodation with the British team and be supported by coaches and support staff from GB Boxing.
GB Boxing’s Performance Director, Rob McCracken, said: “We have strength-in-depth in quiet a few weight categories, so it is always difficult selecting teams for Olympic qualifying events, which are hugely significant for the boxers, but we have analysed their recent performances and gone with boxers whose form and fitness indicates they have a good chance of qualifying at the next event.
“Qualifying for an Olympic Games in boxing is very tough and, while we expect our boxers to perform well in Italy, previous experience shows that we are likely to send boxers to the third and final qualifier, so those that have not made it this time need to continue to work and train hard and make sure they are ready to take the opportunity, if or when we come to select boxers for the final qualifier.”