Portsmouth teenage prospects flying flag for city and England in prestigious Three Nations event
Portsmouth will have two teenage representatives from the city taking part in a top amateur boxing competition this weekend.
Lord Mountbatten Boxing Club members and Paulsgrove-based pairing of Madison Stubbington-Bartlett and Oliver Wells will be battling it out for England in the Three Nations event staged in Barnsley tomorrow and Sunday.
Trafalgar School pupil Stubbington-Bartlett, aged 15, will compete for her country in the junior competition in the girls u-75kg category with her semi-final bout taking place tomorrow.
Club-mate Wells, 16, is also part of the Three Nations line up, fighting in the junior boys u-48kg weight category, as his last-four bout takes place on the same day.
Both will be hoping to progress through their semi-final contests and into competition finals which take place the following day with some of the best boxers from England, Wales and Scotland coming together for the prestigious event.
Lord Mountbatten BC - based out of the Mountbatten Centre - has only been running since the lifting of the previous coronavirus pandemic lockdown a little more than a year ago.
Joint head coach Darly Madison-Bartlett, who is Madison's father and trains both his daughter and fellow Three Nations entrant Wells, says having two fighters in the coveted amateur event shows the strides the club are making.
He said: ‘In the first year we've got two boxers out fighting for England so things are going well. Our club only started after lockdown so we've literally only been going for a year.
‘Madison's done some England training and Oli's just got the call up for the Three Nations. We're hopefully trying to expand (club numbers) and things like this can only help. They're both chilled out, I train both of them, I'm the polar opposite, I'm really nervous.’