"Mark Hastie Was Outstanding" - John McKay

Scotland's national boxing coach, John McKay, has described Mark Hastie's gold winning performance in the Norway Box Cup as "outstanding".

Hastie, fighting at 64kg was the only Scot to return with a gold medal.

"Excellent performance," John McKay told Scottish Boxing. "He beat a strong Norwegian boxer first up and beat a very elusive Danish Southpaw in the final."

Both Mitch Prince and Steve Simmons missed out on a place in their respective finals after their bouts ends all square and the countback rule came into force, with Mitch particularly unlucky to lose out.

"Mitch Prince lost on a countback after drawing 18-18," explained John. "He was also very good, taking the fight to his opposition from the first bell. A great performance. In my opinion and many others he should have got the nod.

"Steve Simmons won bronze too, losing to a Danish boxer by countback after drawing 25-25 at the finish. Very very good performance."

Scotland's other bronze medalist was Fundo Mhura who lost to a Swedish boxer who went on to win gold. "Fundo boxed very very well for three rounds, but the inexperience showed in the last round."

All in all, John McKay was very impressed by how the young Scots performed in what was a tough international competition.

"It was pleasing to see these rather inexperienced Scottish boxers perform so
well. There were 11 countries competing, Egypt and Ukraine included, and it was probably harder than last year."

Posted by scottish-boxing at January 26, 2005 02:51 PM