Manitoba fists clench 3 medals

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This article was published 26/02/2011 (5583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba boxers displayed fists of steel at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax and they’ve got the hardware to prove it.

Julio Escorcia Jr. of the Orioles Boxing Club earned the silver medal Friday night in the 49-52 kilogram weight class championship bout. He was defeated by Nova Scotia’s Jason Downey 17-4.

Bronze medals were presented to Jerome Busch of Pan Am Boxing Club in the 69-75 kg weight class and Kurtis Brownrigg in the 75-81 kg class.

The results brought Team Manitoba’s medal count to 23 including five gold, seven silver and 11 bronze. The Games conclude Sunday.

“I’m very grateful to win silver, I was given this great opportunity to be part of this event and I’m so happy with the experience,” Escorcia said of the fight that consisted of three rounds of three minutes each. “A lot of people told me after that I won so I think it was closer than the score reflected. In the third round I really gave it my all so I thought I caught up to him there.”

It is the first year of boxing for Escorcia, a Grade 12 student at West Kildonan Collegiate, where he is also a member of the varsity boys’ basketball team.

Manitoba’s boxing team brought its own mentors on the coaching staff, including Roland Vandal of Pan Am Boxing Club, who most-recently fought professionally in Winnipeg last summer on King John Boxing’s Hometown Heroes card, and Kent Brown of United Boxing Club, a former national champion in 2000 who qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games.

“Our Manitoba boxers have been excellent, our guys trained hard and they worked hard,” Brown said. “We’ve got guys from all different clubs who all trained together and that unity really showed itself in this tournament. What makes me especially proud is they all really moulded together as a team. It was all about unselfishness and supporting each other. It was really something cool to be a part of, for all of us.”

Brownrigg earned bronze by qualifying for the semifinals in his weight class.

“I’m pretty proud of bronze, I worked really hard in the training camp to get here and I think the hard work paid off. I would have liked gold, but I did okay,” said Brownrigg, a 17-year-old student from Winnipeg’s Murdoch MacKay Collegiate. “Because it was a multi-sport event, we got so much support from the other Team Manitoba athletes and I’ve never experienced that before.”

In the alpine ski male slalom event, Colin Ross placed 16th, Max Gaber 17th, Bryant Roulston 20th, Steven Horbas 24th and William Lyne 26th. In the female slalom event, Tori Hislop was 17th, Alexandrea Murray 18th, Samantha French 19th, Leah Lagoski 30th and Meg Brown 31st.

Cody Berube and Joanna Lachance lost to Quebec 221-210 in the quarter finals of archery’s recurve team competition to finish in sixth place. In the team event of compound archery, Keenan Brown and Rebekah Enns lost to Ontario 226-223 to finish in a tie for sixth place.

In synchronized swimming duets, Holly Ediger and Megan Rutherford placed ninth in the A final while Carly Ayers and Kacie Reimer were fifth in the B final.

Terry Zhang lost 3-0 in his quarter-final match to Ontario in male singles table tennis.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca