Eleven boxers return from Gee Bee tournament in Finland with medals, including five gold

ELEVEN members of the GB Boxing squad will return from this year’s Gee Bee tournament in Finland with medals, with England’s Demie-Jade Resztan, Kiaran MacDonald, Charley Davison, Shona Whitwell and George Crotty all winning gold.

Meanwhile, light-welterweights Reese Lynch and Hannah Robinson, light-middleweight Ioan Croft and light-heavyweight Ramtin Musah had to settle for silver having reached their respective finals.

The final two medals were earned by England’s Joe Tyers and Scotland’s Sam Hickey who leave Helsinki with bronze.

Minimumweight Demie-Jade Resztan was the first member of the team to be crowned champion when, in her only bout of the competition, she beat Ukraine’s Julia Demanneko via split decision (3:2) in what was a closely fought encounter.

Moving into the second day of finals action and flyweight Kiaran MacDonald, having won gold just over two weeks ago at the Socikas, made it back-to-back gold medals as he earned a split victory over Omar Salah Ibrahim of Germany.

The 25-year-old from Sunderland also beat Wales’ Scott Richards and Bahrain’s Azat Makhmetov on the way to the final.

Competing for the first time in 2023 was Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Charley Davison, and the bantamweight ensured she kicked her year off in style as she also sealed gold.

The Lowestoft boxer earned victories over Sara Svesson, Scarlett Delgado and Anastasia Kovalchuk on her way to being crowned champion.

The final female member of the squad to win gold was lightweight Shona Whitwell, who like Davison, was boxing for the first time this year.

Whitwell came into the tournament off the back of a strong 2022 which saw her handed the award for Most Improved Boxer at the GB Boxing annual awards following golds medals at the Bocksai and Balkan tournaments.

Following three wins from three in Helsinki, including a unanimous victory over Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson in the final, the St Ives boxer was able to tick off another international tournament in which she has stood top of the podium.

George Crotty made no mistake in making the step up to cruiserweight, as he clinched the team’s fifth and final gold medal.

After an impressive unanimous semi-final victory over Canada’s Karl Deloys, Crotty carried on where he left of as he confidently got the better of Estonia’s Anton Vinogradov to be crowned 86kg champion.

Hannah Robinson was the only other boxer, alongside Resztan, to compete on the first day of two days of finals action but was beaten unanimously by the current European silver medallist Mariia Bova of Ukraine.

The light-welterweight had previously won her semi-final bout unanimously versus Canada’s Garinder Takhar.

Reese Lynch was the only member of the squad to box on every day of the tournament as he entered the ring four times, as he beat Lithuania’s Andriejus Lavrenovas and Finland’s Santeri Kemppeinen unanimously as well as teammate Joe Tyers via a narrow 3:2 split to reach his final.

Unfortunately though, the Scot was unable to make it a quadruple of wins in the Finnish capital as he was outpointed unanimously by the USA’s Emilio Garcia.

The final two silver medals were secured by Ioan Croft and Ramtin Musah, who also both faced difficult American opposition.

Croft went up against 2021 World silver medallist, Omari Jones whilst Musah took on reigning World champion, Robby Gonzales, with both British boxers being beaten unanimously.

Savannah Stubley, Billy Adams, Olivia Holmes, Harris Akbar and Kerry Davis were also in action in Helsinki, with all sadly missing out on the medal stages.