Bradford College's third student at an AIBA World Championships in a year
09 October 2013
GBR Boxer Jack Bateson Image: Sky Sports
With the 2013 Elite Men’s World Championships less than a week away, Bradford College in the United Kingdom is celebrating the incredible success of having its third student picked to box at an AIBA World Boxing Championships.
In December 2012, Advanced Apprenticeship student Oliver Simpson won the AIBA Youth World Championships at Flyweight (52kg) in Armenia, beating Olympic quarter-finalist Jeyvier Cintron in the final. As a result of his success, Oliver was selected to join the GB Development Squad. He is due to complete his course at Bradford College in June 2014.
Last month, schoolboy Mohammed Akbar, from Bradford College’s own club, the Bradford Police & College Boxing Academy, performed brilliantly at Lightweight (60kg) against the talented Cuban Noelvis Ceruti at the AIBA Junior World Championships in Ukraine. Harris lost on a majority decision, but gained great experience as one of the youngest boxers at the tournament.
And finally, GB boxer Jack Bateson will complete the hat-trick for the college next week, when he boxes at Light Flyweight (49kg) at the AIBA World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Jack completed the two-year Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence at Bradford College in 2011, before moving onto the Foundation Degree in Sports Coaching.
Bradford College Sports Academies Manager, Paul Porter, who was also Field of Play Manager at the London 2012 Olympic Games, said, “I’m tremendously proud of the three lads, and their success at World level demonstrates the fact that our development and education programme works. Harris’s appearance at the World Juniors was especially gratifying as he is also a member of our own in-house boxing club. Our coaches and the educational and support staff here work tirelessly to enable our boxers to achieve their full potential in both sporting and academic terms, and our internationalist outlook has helped them feel comfortable when boxing overseas.”
Boxing Academy Head Coach, Mally MacIver, added, “This is the result of five years hard work between Bradford College and the Police Community Clubs of Great Britain. Not only have we seen Harris, Olly and Jack reach the Worlds, but also many more boxers fulfilling their potential by winning titles from British Universities Female Championships to national junior and senior titles. I’m proud of every single one of our boxers.”
Former Scotland National Coach and Bradford College Advanced Apprenticeship Lead, Kevin Smith, who coached Nigeria at the London 2012 Games and who also works as a high performance consultant for the Philippines Boxing Association, believes that the future success of the national boxing programme lies, partly at least, in centres of excellence such as that at Bradford College. “The success of the boxing academy at Bradford College shows that it’s not only important to develop the boxer as an athlete at a high level, but also to give them an equally high level of pastoral care while ensuring that they don’t neglect their education. That’s how to get the most out of a boxer.”
The Bradford College model demonstrates that boxing not only belongs in the world of Further and Higher Education, but also that it provides such institutions with great benefits. A good string of performances from Jack Bateson in Kazakhstan will round off a great year for this college that takes its boxing very seriously indeed.
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