FORMER Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Anderson Emmanuel lost to Clayton Laurent of the United States Virgin Islands on the final night of the Amateur Boxing Association’s 35th anniversary tournament at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed on Saturday.
The heavyweight match was a rough affair, though Emmanuel never looked like winning.
The aggressive Laurent pressed on the Barbadian, trying to intimidate him and make him look small in the ring.
The first final of the night saw a dominant Jabili Breedy of Barbados against Justin Parris of Trinidad and Tobago. Breedy had to work hard but won the contest and also took the prize for the Best Junior.
Also receiving top honours from the judges was young Barbadian Jamal Edman who was the Best Youth.
Cabral Foster received the Top Novice award from the judges for his performance in the middleweight division and also his courage in taking on a heavyweight boxer. This meant that he faced an opponent two weight classes above his own and he gave a great account of himself in a losing cause.
Stephano Lynch of Barbados won the night’s first super heavyweight bout and the other was the only women’s bout of the night which was won by Avita O’Connor of Bermuda.
Before the final super heavyweight clash of the night, Ricardo Blackman won gold in the bantamweight class and took the award for the best of the open boxers.
Other winners included Gregorio Ritchie of St Maarten, Cobia Breedy, who completed the Breedy family double; Leonard Harewood and Adrian Biscette.
The tournament was in hopnour of Kathy Harper-Hall, who has been intrumental in the development of boxing for more than three decades. She was presented with plaques by chairman of the Barbados Boxing Board of Control James Marshall and by sports administator Joseph “Reds” Perreira.
