Sports scholar Jeremie Besson took the Silver Medal at the National BUCS Boxing Championships in Sheffield. These were the first UK championships for Jeremie, an MSc Engineering student from the Netherlands.
Jeremie boxed at 60Kg in the Open class for boxers who have had more than 10 bouts. The finals were always going to be tough as he drew Michael McCarthy, an Irish International who boxes out of the Repton ABC.
Jeremie boxed well and to instruction using his speed of foot and hand to give McCarthy all he could handle and was ahead by 1 point going into the 4th & final round. Jeremie tired slightly in the last round and McCarthy was able to draw level. At the end of the contest it was 6-6 on points scored. It then goes to a system called count back, which left the score at 9-9. This is the closest you can get to a draw in amateur boxing. However, in amateur boxing there has to be a result and it was left to the judges to vote on the result. Unfortunately they voted in favour of McCarthy.
Jeremie hadn't boxed for over a year prior to this competition and should be very proud of his performance. Jeremie won praise from the BUCS organisers and from coaches of other universities. Simon Ford, the Coventry University coach who was Jeremie’s allocated corner man said: 'He is a very polite young man who deserved more than he got on the night. It was a pleasure to be associated with him and I would have no problems looking after him again in the future should he need it.'
Jeremie certainly did Aston proud and will now be focusing on representing Aston University and the Netherlands at the World University Championships later this year.
Words by Simon Foster
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