LOCHORE boxing refereeing and judging guru, Andy Caulfield, is confident that future Olympic competitions will see Asian fighters winning a whole lot more medals.

The former Olympic referee was part of the Task Force set up to provide the officials for the Tokyo Olympics, and he spent two weeks in Japan coaching the refs and judges during the competition.

On his return he was sent to the Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships, held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to coach and advise the officials for this event, which he said in his mind, underlined the boxing talent coming through the systems of the many Asian countries.

Andy himself won several national titles as a boxer, competed internationally between 1984 and 1993 including at the Auckland 1990 Commonwealth Games. He competed at the 1984 European Junior Boxing Championships, therefore he fully appreciated the feelings of the young talent who took part in Dubai.

The Scottish official congratulated all of the referees and judges who worked at a very high level during the event which saw 290 contests take place even more than the Olympic Games!

“The championships were of the very highest standard”, said the man who refereed in the London Olympics and in two Commonwealth Games

“It was a great achievement to have such high number of boxers attending during these difficult times. It shows the hard work and support of the affiliated Asian National Federations, coaches, and team managers. All of the participating countries should be proud of their achievements and the truly used this great opportunity to showcase their talents”.

Added Andy: “I believe that everyone felt good again after the long period of inactivity due to the pandemic.

“The future of Asian boxing is certainly bright, as we followed the several talents in this ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships.

“All of the competitors were winners for being able to show their skills during their victories and defeats. The level was very high and this produced many close contests in Dubai”.

Looking at the officials’ work in the tournament he added: “The work of the referees and judges improved as the tournament progressed, due to the fact that many of them were not able to work in big events due to the pandemic situation over the past 18 months.

“They showed excellent professional standards every day. All of them learned from seminars carried out every day from the evaluators of the competition, Mr Pat Fiacco, of Canada; Mr. Mohamed Braham, of Tunisia and myself.

“The championship was a great accomplishment of the ASBC and I must congratulate President Mr Anas Alotaiba and his team for arranging such a wonderful event with the vision to give the young boxers the opportunity to achieve their dreams.

“The neutral referees and judges worked hard, in this ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships, and Ms Veronika Szucs, of Hungary, and Mr Aleksandr Hamidov, of Uzbekistan, impressed and became the best referees in Dubai.”

Looking back at his experience Andy concluded: “From what I saw there is no doubt that at future Olympics a lot more gold medals in boxing are going to come from the Asian countries.

“Uzbekistan and Khazakstan are already well known for producing medal hopefuls, but the talent on show in Dubai indicated that there are more countries who will be hitting the high spots in forthcoming Olympics.”