Two members of Kelowna’s Thistletown Boxing Club returned from Quebec City with some well-earned hardware.
Austin Riggs won gold, while teammate Curtis Anderson captured a silver medal at the Canadian junior and youth boxing championships last weekend.
Both local boxers are 15 and students at Mt. Boucherie Secondary School.
Despite an injured back, Riggs battled through all of his bouts in the junior 63 kg class to claim the gold medal.
“He fought very strong and aggressive boxers,” said Thistletown coach Graham McIntosh. “After tasting some of his powerful punches, they soon learned to settle down and think twice before coming straight at Austin.”
With only seven bouts of experience, Curtis Anderson made it to the final in the junior 50 kg division before losing to Quebec’s Thomas Chabot.
“Curtis did a fantastic job of cutting off the ring and attacking with both hands with a variety of combinations but the experienced Chabot was a bit too accurate for us,” McInotsh said.
With still only nine bouts to his credit Anderson is now the No. 2 boxer in the country at the 50 kg mark.
A third local boxer, Ajay Bopari of the Kelowna Boxing Club, won the bronze medal in the youth 64 kg division.
Two other Team B.C. boxers, Liam O’Brien and Cody Brown, won gold in the youth category.
Graham McIntosh served as an assistant coach on Team B.C.
