Terry Edwards in charge until 2012
Published October 8, 2008 by Martin Bean
After much speculation, it has now been confirmed that Terry Edwards will retain his role as Head Coach of the British Boxing team until the 2012 Olympics in London. Head of the newly formed British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA), Derek Mapp (former Sport England Chief) confirmed Edwards would stay at least until 2012.
Edwards has many detractors within the amateur game in England but quite frankly, you cannot knock his results. In Sydney 2000, Audley Harrison took the Gold Medal Home. Athens in 2004 saw 17 year old Amir Khan (considered a controversial selection for the qualifiers) grab a Silver. And this summer in Beijing, 3 medals were achieved after an unprecedented eight boxers qualified for the games.
Add to that Frankie Gavin’s World Games Gold Medal in 2007 along with his seeming knack of picking the right boxer (remember Barker and Dolan were shock selections in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester but both won Gold) you have to agree that this is right decision for British Boxing.
Stability and a long term plan led to Britain’s success in Beijing—another four years should see even more success when the games come to London.
How this will affect the current crop of elite boxers will be interesting. Many have said Terry’s future is pivotal to whether they stay amateur or go professional—now they have a decision to make.
Whether the current crop such as Degale, Gavin and Price go professional is irrelevant in some ways to Britain’s success in 2012—the programme set in place has many superb youngsters coming through the system, such as Hull’s Luke Campbell. In four years time they will have the necessary international experience to top the medal podiums on home soil.
In summary, congratulations to BABA for the right decision and good luck Terry for the next four years.
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