Canadian Boxers Win More Hardware - Gold and Silver Medals in Boxing

Canadian Boxers Win More Hardware - Gold and Silver Medals in Boxing

On a day when Scotland was celebrating the recent boxing medals for the home-nation as well as the near completion of a wonderful set of Games that will not soon be forgotten, Canada’s Ariane Fortin and Samir (Sweet Sammy) El Mais (Windsor, ON) were looking to turn the Scottish crowd into Canadian supporters. Although neither one were too concerned about the 12,000-strong crowd at the SECC Hydro for the finals, both were looking to turn the energy their way.

“It’s exciting for sure,” said Fortin. “It is motivation to get them to stop cheering on the English boxer and start supporting me.”

El Mais, felt similar about the crowd.

“It is an enormous venue and the key is to not let the crowd concern you, but instead to use it to your advantage,” said ‘Sweet Sammy’.

Earlier in the day, Mandy Bujold of Kitchener Ontario was presented with her bronze medal. Now, it was Ariane Fortin’s turn to find out what colour she would be taking home.

Ariane Fortin (St. Nicholas, QC) in the middle (75kg) Women’s gold medal finals met Savannah Marshall of England. Fortin landed some good punches and won the first round 2:1. In the third round, the English boxer seemed to be staling, and Fortin landed some big punches that surprised the crowd. Last round Fortin has going for it, almost tasting the gold. The competitors hugged at the end of the bout. Once the scores were in, it was a split decision. Fortin had one the first round with scores from two of the three judges, but the rest of the rounds only had one judge have her wining the entire bout. Fortin was clearly disappointed but respectful of the decision and the way her sport judges performances.

“With a split decision, which is common in our sport, there is not much of a difference between the winner and the loser and I prefer to think about whether or not I was happy with my performance, and I was," said the first woman to box for Canada at the Commonwealth Games. “I wanted gold, but the silver was not a gift, I earned it and worked really hard for it."

For the heavy-weight division El Mais met David Light of New Zealand. El Mais knew at this point that is was Canada’s last chance for a gold medal in Boxing at the 2014 Games. Boxing received no medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and only one medal at the 2006 Games in Melbourne. Already Canada had won two, but El Mais wanted gold.

In the first round, El Mais would cover some good ground and then head in for a few jabs and combinations. Both boxers then landed some good punches in the second round. Third round saw the boxers try to make the points count. With 25 seconds left there was a flurry for last minute points. The New Zealand athlete was sure he had won, but El Mais had won in a split decision, the gold was his.

"It has been a while since a gold medal in boxing, I am proud to now be part of history, and proud that I can pull it together fight after fight,” said El Mais. “We have a good team behind us, and it is positive and it helps us get all the way to the top."

The Canadian boxing team leaves Glasgow with a medal in three different colours and three more than the 2010 Commonwealth Games.