European Champ

St Marys Chatham has made history and become  Medways first ever European Gold medalist! 

The 13 year old  Chatham based boxer flew out to to Bulgaria with the England national squad on Monday 21st May. The 6 foot 2 inch youngster received a bye in the quater finals, due to a shortage of opponent in the light heavyweight category. This added to the frustration of not being able to secure a bout in the last 12 months since winning the National schoolboy title in May 2017. Although the Greenacre sschool student had been training and sparring since then, there is no substitute for competitive Boxing matches and his St Marys coaches who were tuning into live youtube streams back home, feared he may suffer from some ring rust. He had to sit back and watch his the Ukranian champion stop the Irish champion in the other quater final. However,  in the semi final against Oleksandr IIchenko, Enriko came out positively picking off his opponent with ease using good footwork, slipping outside of the Ukrainians punches and countering well. Halfway through the round Enriko landed a solid left hand to the head causing the referee to step in and award a count. At the restart Enriko forced the Ukrainian onto his back foot as he piled on the pressure. The Ukrainian failed to defend the barrage of punches and was awarded another standing count stopping the bout in Enriko’s favour.

In the final, Enriko took the fight to the Russian champion, who had also stopped his semi final opponent, so something had to give in this battle of two confident 13 year olds.  Enriko began well, picking his punches well and using good foot and trunk defences to avoid being hit. When the Russian was covering up Enriko switched to the body, unloading hooks from both sides. In the second round Enriko pushed the Russian back, selecting his shots well as he took the body and head, occasionally getting caught by the Russian. In the last round the Russian looked tired as Enriko cut the ring off and hit him at will. Enriko boxed well within his comfort zone as he destroyed the Russians chances of gold. This was another good performance by Enriko winning the Gold medal by a unanimous decision.

All his coaches at St Marys are so proud of Enriko, he has done himself and the Medway towns proud. It's tough enough winning a National title it is a massive achievement, so proving yourself number 1 in Europe is mind blowing. As long as he stays grounded and didicated, there really is no telling how far he can go in Boxing. Bearing in mind, at the same age, the likes of future world Heavyweight champions  Anthony Joshua and Frank Bruno had not even laced on gloves yet and they went on to win professional world titles. Time will tell, but Enriko Itauma is definitely on the right path.