A team of young GB Boxers have returned from this year’s Dacal World Cup held in Spain with 11 medals, which includes six golds.
Lauren Mackie (54kg), Sacha Hickey (63kg) and Damar Thomas (92kg+) were all crowned champions of their respective weight categories and were joined at the top of the podium by Kayla Allen (66kg), Odel Kamara (71kg) and Teagn Stott (86kg) who all clinched gold in their debut competition as a GB Boxer.
There were also silver medals for England’s Olivia Holmes (57kg) and Isaac Okoh (92kg) who were narrowly beaten in their final bouts as well as Scotland’s Aaron Cullen (54kg) who was unfortunately from his final following a cut sustained in his semi-final victory.
The final medals of the week were claimed by Zoe Andrews (54kg) and Dimeji Shittu (80kg), who like teammates; Allen, Kamara and Stott, were also competing for the first time as GB Boxers.
The first gold medal in Mostoles, Spain was secured by bantamweight Lauren Mackie, in what was her only bout of the week.
It was comfortable victory for Mackie though, who eased her way to gold by beating the host nation’s Maria Gonzalez Caceres unanimously.
Sacha Hickey then delivered an equally dominant performance when she beat Megan de Cler of the Netherlands unanimously in her second bout of the competition having forced Hungary’s Vivien Budai to throw the towel in at the start of the third round in their semi-final clash.
The third and final women to claim gold for GB Boxing this week was Kayla Allen who had a debut tournament to remember after firstly beating Spain’s Mariana Torres in her opening bout before then confidently getting the better of Scotland’s Caitlin Rainey to seal gold.
Like Allen, it was a memorable week for Odel Kamara in his first competition since joining the World Class Programme (WCP).
The light-middleweight was crowned champion following three impressive unanimous victories against Domonik Enekes (Hungary), David Preito (Spain) and finally, fellow Englishman Rio Gordon.
The other GB Boxer to be making a 100% start to their GB Boxing career was Teagn Stott.
Boxing at cruiserweight, Stott firstly beat Hungary’s Istvan Kreko unanimously to reach the final before then coming out on top of a fiercely contested bout with Montenegro’s Petar Ljiesevic via a 3:2 split to stand at the top of the podium.
Finally, it was a winning return to the ring for Damar Thomas.
The super-heavyweight was boxing for the first time in 14 months and Thomas wasted no time in leaving his mark on the competition, ending his semi-final clash with Moldova’s Nicolai Burdujai inside the third round.
He then dished out the same fate to the host nation’s Rodolpho Enrique Letelie to win gold, this time bringing the bout to a close in round two.
Kelsey Oakley, Ellis Trowbridge, Isa Akram and Sameenah Toussaint were also in action at the Dacal World Cup but missed out on the medal stages following defeats in their opening bouts.
The full list of medal winners is as follows:
Gold
W54kg Lauren Mackie ENG
W63kg Sacha Hickey ENG
W66kg Kayla Allen ENG
M71kg Odel Kamara ENG
M86kg Teagn Stott ENG
M92+kg Damar Thomas ENG
Silver
W57kg Olivia Holmes ENG
M54kg Aaron Cullen SCO
M92kg: Isaac Okoh ENG
Bronze
W54kg Zoe Andrews WAL
M80kg Oladimeji Shittu ENG
