The south-west region could produce Victoria’s or even Australia’s next boxing stars.
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Boxing Australia state development coach Adam Nahal confirmed this after conducting a two-day regional development camp in Warrnambool over the weekend.
Nahal, and national development coach Don Abnett, put more than 30 emerging boxers from across the region through their paces and exposed them to a nation-wide program designed by Boxing Australia.
The highly-credentialed coach said he walked away impressed by what he saw.
“There is good talent here and a good mix of age with the predominate age being adolescent and one of the positives out of this camp is that there is a lot of females,” he said.
“We have experienced campaigners like Donald Jones and Katie Barker from Hamilton who train under Ray McIntosh who is a great coach out in Coleraine
"There are locals from Warrnambool out of Lyndon Edney's gym with Amy Gibbs and Dakotah Keane who are very talented young girls coming through.
"They are going to hold Victoria in good stead in the future in the women's, especially when they reach the elite level because they are quite talented.”
"The idea is to bring athletes into the pathway program,” he said.
Nahal said the main aim of the camp was to bring athletes into Boxing Australia’s pathway program.
But from there he said the sky was the limit for the south-west talent he worked with over the the weekend.
"Obviously the end goal is Olympics and Commonwealth Games,” he said.
"Olympics is the big stage so there is a lot of different ways to measure the success of the a development program.
"For me it is whether someone makes the Olympics and wins a medal or whether someone has their first bout or just if someone improves their life from the sport.”
Koroit-based boxing coach Lydon Edney, who was one of the organisers of the event, said the significance of the camp should not be underestimated.
"It is a big opportunity and great exposure for the kids," he said.
"It really isn't very often that you get high level coaches like Adam (Nahal) and Don (Abnett) out in regional Victoria.
“Don has actually been a coach at Commonwealth Games level, so it's an opportunity that we would never have passed up.
"And we always travel to the city for competitions and a lot of the high-level sparring, so for these guys to bring a camp like this out to Warrnambool it is pretty cool."