Trio of Yorkshire boxers win national titles

Connor Loftus has won the national title for a second year running.

The winners included Connor Loftus (Burmantofts ABC, Leeds), who became a two-time champion, while Sunny Edwards (Steel City ABC, Sheffield) and Natasha Gale (Jubilee ABC, Sheffield) both won their first national title in a historic completion which saw men and women’s finals being held as part of the same tournament for the first time in the event’s 128-year history.

Ashley Vanzie, of Platinum ABC in Bradford, was beaten in the final by the defending champion, Joshua Buatsi.

Edwards won the light-flyweight final with a unanimous victory over Joe Maphosa of Middlesbrough ABC.

Edwards’ tactic of boxing on the backfoot and counter-punching helped him land the title and emulate the achievement of his brother Charlie who won the same title in 2010.

In what many observers viewed as the best bout of the day, Loftus from Leeds defeated Cyrus Pattinson of Birtley ABC to retain the national welterweight title.

An epic contest in which both boxers giae everything, ended with the pair trading blows in a tumultuous final round as Loftus had just enough left in the tank to get the better of his rival.

Gale securing her first national title with a unanimous victory over the Army’s Alex Turbitt in the women’s middleweight contest.

The victory marked the end of a good six months for Gale who has recently been added to GB Boxing’s podium potential squad and now trains every other weekend at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, where she has her eyes set on forcing her way into the reckoning for Olympic selection in 2016.