Supplied
Arapawa Boxing Club is gearing up for the South Island Golden Gloves, from left: Glen Cotton (head coach), Nyala Stevenson, Yoshua Judanto, Israel Reece, River Mclaren, and Eddie O’Brien.
Arapawa Boxing Club in Picton is training hard for the South Island Golden Gloves competition, hoping to keep its winning streak.
Four of the club’s boxers will be fighting in the competition on June 3 and 4, having won a slew of medals at two championships in the previous two months.
That includes two gold medals and two silver at the South Island Novice championships in Christchurch in March, two silvers and a gold at the Wellington Boxing champs in April, and two winning titles and a silver at the Canterbury Boxing champs earlier this month.
One of the boxers preparing for the South Island Golden Gloves was Nyala Stevenson, aged 14. It would be her first time entering the competition.
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Big events were one of Nyala’s favourite things about boxing, she said. The upcoming South Island Golden Gloves would be held at Woolston Workingmen’s Club in Christchurch over King’s Birthday weekend.
Like any fighter, Nyala would still get nervous before a bout, but she said she always remembered her training and what she was working towards.
“No matter what happens, it’s all for experience.”
Her achievements so far included silver at the South Island Novice Championships at 44kgs, a win for the 44kg cadet female in Wellington in the Hutt Valley Championships, and a win at the Canterbury Boxing Championships.
Supplied/Supplied
Nyala Stevenson with her trophy from Wellington/Hutt Valley Championships in April.
She also loved learning about discipline, she said, and it helped her reach her goal of competing at a national level.
“That was my goal from the start, after I first found out that we could go away to fights and stuff like that. I really wanted to go,” Nyala said.
Her next goal was to one day be a national champion, she said.
Head coach Glen Cotton said the 14-year-old had been boxing for just over a year now. She just showed up one day and “took an interest” in the sport, he said.
For a small town gym, Cotton said it had been “pretty cool” to see his students go out and compete.
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Boxing was a busy sport, Cotton said, and there was never really a break throughout the year.
“It’s been a pretty busy few months.
“[I] really enjoy seeing them succeed, but they made my job easy when they put in the work in the gym and outside the gym.”
After the Golden Gloves, the club would get straight into training for a charity fight called Fight for Rangatahi which would debut two new boxers in August. They would then prepare for the New Zealand Boxing Champs in July.