Birtley ABC sensation Tom Ward capped an amazing season with a dominant performance in the European junior championships.Birtley ABC sensation Tom Ward capped an amazing season with a dominant performance in the European junior championships.

The 16-year-old won the national ABA and Tri-Nation titles before making the European championships.

Tom cruised to a 5-0 win against Georgian boxer Gregory Metoyan, and then out-boxed Romanian powerhouse Lilian Iliev. Tom used speed and power to win 6-1 before reaching the semi-finals where he faced Ukrainian Antoliy Chakchin.

Chakchin, the home fighter, was a tall counter-puncher with a hungry crowd behind him. He worked the ring while using his range but was no match for Ward, who with skill, speed and power exposed openings to win the bout 7-0 whilst conserving energy for the final the following day.

Against Artur Nersisyan of Armenia, Tom stayed at long range, winning the gold medal with a final score of 6-1. Ward was the only western boxer in the competition to make the final, let alone win.

“I was over the moon and I had no doubt in my mind that I would win,” explained Tom. “Getting beat in the schoolboy finals made me more determined to do well in the Europeans and my coach Graeme Rutherford helped me make it a reality.

“After my first fight I felt really confident about the tournament and it was the biggest win in my career to date. I want to go one better by representing GB in the Olympics and I’m training hard every day to make this happen.”

Since starting the sport aged 11, Ward’s accolades make impressive reading: he has made two national schoolboy finals, won two multi-nation titles, as well as capturing bronze in the European championships in 2009 and gold in 2010.

Birtley ABC’s junior coach Graeme Rutherford has a lot to be proud of in getting his boxers to top level. As well as his success with Tom, Graham has made sure no less than eight of his boxers reached the 2010 regional schoolboy finals, six of those went on to be national victors including the McCormack twins, Luke and Pat; Joe Ruddock, David Robson, Joe Care and Isaac Milburn.

“It was the best performance we’ve seen from Tom in terms of skill, relaxation and tactical awareness,” said Graeme. “That’s something we’ve been working on with him, and hopefully this will be the beginning of some really good times.”

Tom continues to improve and has won the NACYP's this season as well as progressing to the final of the Junior ABA's which take place this weekend.