HUDDERSFIELD boxer Jason McCalmon did his chances of pressing for the Great Britain Olympic team no harm whatsoever with a silver medal and Boxer of the Tournament award in the Lemesia Cup event in Cyprus.
The 21-year-old light-heavyweight was accompanied by Rawthorpe ABC clubmate Scott Gladwin, who landed a gold medal, and coaches Mark Reynolds and Patrick ‘PJ’ Joyce for what was the ninth year of the tournament.
The medal double – and top award for McCalmon – was an outstanding achievement for the Rawthorpe club as the event included teams from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Sweden, Spain and Egypt.
Coach Reynolds explained: “We were very proud of the way things went.
“On the first two days we settled in and trained in nice warm weather of 23 degrees, which was a pleasant change from back home!
“On the first day of competition the weigh-in was at 7am and then in the evening, Jason fought Irish champion Bernard Manning.
“It was a three-round war which had the crowd on their feet and Jason won a points decision.
“Scott, meanwhile, got a bye in the quarter-finals due to a lad from Spain pulling out injured.”
Gladwin fought the following day in the semi-finals and put on an excellent show.
The 21-year-old took on the Cyprus featherweight champion, Andreas Kattoa, and gave him two standing counts. The referee eventually stopped the bout in favour of Gladwin in round III.
McCalmon won his semi later in the same evening against Belgian champion Albert Saidoejev. He won on points but gave him two counts in the last to get to the final.
Finals day had Gladwin winning his gold medal when Greek opponent Artur Tslkiridis retired after the first round as the Rawthorpe man proved far too strong.
McCalmon was up against Russia’s European Champion Evgeniy Tishenko and, while he lost a split decision, he got Boxer of Tournament for his displays in three fights in three days (the Russian had just the one fight due to withdrawals).
The Rawthorpe star, in fact, proved the ‘find’ of the championships. He is ranked No6 in the UK and is looking to get into the 2012 squad over the next year or so.
