GB Boxing’s team of boxers who competed in this year’s Gee Bee tournament in Helsinki, Finland, have returned home with seven medals which includes five golds.
The gold medals were won by Kelsey Oakley (51kg), Sameenah Toussaint (57kg), Will Hewitt (60kg), Kyle Shaw-Tullin (75kg) and Teagn Stott (85kg).
The final two medals were claimed by Scott Richards and Olivia Holmes who collected flyweight and featherweight bronze respectively.
Following the team’s medal performance, GB was also awarded ‘Best Team’ by the competition’s organisers.
Light-flyweight Kelsey Oakley was the first to be crowned champion on finals day, winning gold for the second year in a row in Helsinki having triumphed in 2024, as she came out on top of a fiercely contested bout with the host nation’s Elsa Narhi via a 3:2 split decision.
Oakley’s victory was her third of the week having beaten Czech Republic’s Claudia Totova in her opening bout before being handed a walkover victory in her scheduled semi-final match up with Finland’s Pihla Kaivo-Oja.
Featherweight Sameenah Toussaint was also handed a semi-final walkover to reach her respective final after opponent, France’s Sthelyne Grosy withdrew due to injury.
It meant she would then face Holland’s Gabriella Weerheim, who defeated Toussaint’s teammate Olivia Holmes at the semi-final stage, in the featherweight final.
There was little to separate the two going into the final round but ultimately it was the English boxer who came out on top via a 3:2 split after some good work against her opponent in the final three minutes.
At men’s lightweight, Will Hewitt earned his first gold medal as a GB Boxer after he won all three of his bouts in Helsinki.
He firstly defeated teammate Isa Akram (3:2) in the quarter final stages before beating Germany’s Mohamed Siala (4:1) to tee up a final matchup with Holland’s Mahmoud El Chabtoun where Hewitt confidently dispatched of his opponent, winning the gold medal via a unanimous points decision victory.
It was a debut tournament to remember for Kyle Shaw-Tullin as he too clinched gold in Finland’s capital. Like his teammate Hewitt, Shaw-Tullin also had three bouts on his way to being crowned champion.
A 4:1 victory over the host’s Benjamin Eriksson was followed by a swift second round victory over France’s Hassana El Qadmi after referee brought a halt to the bout due to an injury sustained by the Frenchman.
In the 75kg final, Shaw-Tullin dominated all three rounds versus Australia’s Linkyn Macmillan to seal his place on the top of the podium.
The final GB Boxer to claim gold was cruiserweight Teagn Stott who was awarded a walkover just minutes before he was due to face Lithuania’s Arnas Kazakevicius in the cruiserweight final.
Despite the gold medal success it was a frustrating tournament for Stott who after being handed a bye for the opening round of contests, saw his semi-final tie with Lachlan Lawson come to an end in little over a minute into the first round after the Australian suffered a head injury that meant the bout could not continue, the judges scoring it 3:2 in favour of the Englishman.
Four other members of the GB Boxing squad were in action at the Gee Bee with Scottish trio; Aaron Cullen (55kg), Isa Akram (60kg) and Sonny Kerr (70kg) as well as Callum Makin (70kg) all sadly failing to reach the medal stages.
