A national media scrum surrounded the Boxing Australia athletes at the Broadbeach PCYC on the Gold Coast as they were officially accepted into the Australian Olympic Team. Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman congratulated the boxers on their selection saying “I’m thrilled to welcome Alex, Caitlin, Harry, Justis, Paulo and Skye to the Australian Olympic Team for Tokyo. More than a year after winning their way through the qualifying tournament in Jordan, this is a special day to be officially selected to their debut Olympics. They have shown incredible fortitude and commitment to stay ready and keep working to be at their best for Tokyo. Their selection is a fantastic recognition and reward for the many years of work they have put in, in gyms, in the ring and competing internationally, to reach this milestone. It’s also a day for the families, friends, supporters and teammates of the boxers to celebrate this achievement and to thank Boxing Australia, the coaching and support staff for all the work they have put in to help these athletes realise their Olympic dream.”

The preparation camp now enters the next phase in this training cycle and we will be welcoming assistance from High Performance coaching pool members Bess Slater, Sam Brizzi, Wayne Tolton and Dean Groth. The team have already benefitted from the fantastic support of Cindy Fenech and Allan Nicolson Jnr during the first training block. To finish off the month of May we have Marcos Amado, Jeremy Udovich and Brian Sartori staying with the team to provide a fresh impetus and different perspective to the technical and tactical content of the boxing sessions. All the home coaches of the Olympic qualified athletes at the camp, including those whom are not members of the High Performance coaching pool, were invited to attend. The athletes have also all benefitted from regular sparring sessions with a range of Queensland based training partners at various locations including the Eastside boxing gym as well as at Cudgen with the Maloney twins Andrew and Jason.

The AOC Pfizer vaccine rollout programme has finally begun with the team receiving their first dose at the QAS in Brisbane recently and booked in to receive the second dose on June 2nd so that they will be fully vaccinated and ready to travel to international multi-nations training camps taking place in Colorado Springs and Japan.

The National Futures Program stayed busy in the month of May with five State Futures camps across Australia - South Australia, ACT, Western Australia, NSW, and Queensland. Three of these camps were two day events with invited athletes brought in on the Sunday for sparring.

National Performance Pathway Lead Jamie Pittman presented two development camps in Tasmania; Hobart on 15th May, and Launceston on 16th May. Both development days included three training sessions and a coaches committee meeting.

Due to state covid restrictions easing, it was fantastic to have Pathway and Emerging elites in to the AIS for a nine day National Futures Camp. The athletes were put through High performance presentations, track work, strength and conditioning and boxing sessions with National Performance Pathway Lead Jamie Pittman.

The forthcoming National Futures camp is on 3-7 July 2021; for which the Futures selection panel are currently selecting twelve Youth athletes to attend.

Futures camps coming up in June:

• NSW Futures camp – Sat 12 June 2021
• QLD Futures camp – Sun 6 June 2021
• WA Futures camp – Sat 5 June 2021 and Sun 6 June 2021
• VIC Futures camp – Sat 5 June 2021

The National Futures Program would like to thank all former athletes, special guests and Referees and Judges for taking the time to present to athletes during the State Futures camps.

Boxing Australia’s CEO, Josh O’Brien, is leaving us on 4 June to take up a position at Cricket ACT.

The BAL Board, and I am sure the BAL community, thanks Josh for his 24/7 commitment to conducting and developing our Sport during his tenure as BAL CEO.

We wish him well in his new role and trust we see him at our future tournaments at which he will be welcome.

Ted Tanner

President
Boxing Australia

Registration for a Level 2 Coaching Course in VIC is now available!

The level 2 course is the next level in the Coaching Education Framework that enables coaches to improve their knowledge and understanding of athlete development. Included in the course are modules and learning content building from the Boxing Australia Level 1 Coaching course.

For more information or to register

Level 2 Melbourne

BACT have four forthcoming events:

• Inter-club Sparring Day - Sat 5 June 2021
• Development Camp - Sat 19 June 2021
• City vs Country Tournament at Gold Creek High School - Sat 10 Jul & Sun 11 Jul 2021
• Level 1 Coaching Course – Sat 17 & Sun 18 July 2021

BSA have one forthcoming event:

• Boxing in the Hills Tournament at Cornerstone Collage, Mount Barker - Sat 19 June 2021

BSA have one forthcoming event:

• R&J Seminar at PCYC Campbelltown - Sun 27 June 2021

BWA have one forthcoming event:

• Fight Night Special Bouts at Serbian Community Centre, Kenwick - Sat 19 June 2021

BQLD have one forthcoming event:

• Challenge Tournament at Acacia Ridge Hotel- Sat 26 June 2021

Shop

Boxing Australia's newly developed merchandise is now available online! Head to our online store to check out our range!

Get your Olympic Boxing Supporter merch at the Australian Olympic Team Online Shop.