European Champion, again!

Kent has it’s first double European Boxing champion in St Marys 14 year old Enriko Itauma.

The 14 year old Chatham based teenager flew out to Romania with the England junior squad two weeks ago and was out there for a week. First up in the 80+Kg division was against the Romanian champion. Despite being up against the home boxer, Enriko didn’t intend on relying on the judges and started fast. Itauma landed crisp combinations and caused the referee to stop the bout in his favour after 2 standing counts at the end of the first round. Next up in the quarter finals was against Germany. Although the German was a tall technical boxer, Enriko found clean punches to force standing counts in 1^st and 3^rd rounds en route to a clear points victory. Into the semi finals against the strong Russian favourite. The first round was close as Enriko exchanged too many punches at close range. The second round the 6 feet 3 Greenacre school student used his superior height and reach advantages and won the round clearly. The 3^rd round was close, then Itauma had a point deducted for his gumshield coming out 3 times and it looked like it may cost him dearly. However, Itauma dug in and found a solid combination to make the Russian touch down to the canvas for a knockdown and this cemented his win on points. In the final against a strong Armenia  boxer who was 23 months older, Enriko managed to use his superior speed and skills to agains force two standing counts and win his 2^nd European Gold, after winning the schoolboys Gold in Bulgaria last year.

Winning last year was great, but it was always going to be more difficult this year as Enriko was Boxing a year above himself , as this is his first year as a junior and it is a 2 year age category. However, Enriko again defied the odds, won Gold and extended his undefeated record to 11 bouts. Enriko also beat some opponents who had over 30 bouts, which also makes his achievement even better. St Marys Boxing club are proud of Enrikos achievement and if he stays on the right path and remains dedicated, the sky is really the limit for the Chatham youngster.