PCYC boxer Eric Kyanga returns home with Australian Club Championship title around his waist
Geraldton boxing star Eric Kyanga is now a title-holder after a stunning performance at the Australian Club Championships in South Australia last month.
The PCYC boxer flew home from South Australia with a title belt around his waist after beating his opponent in the final after the very first round.
The 20-year-old fought arguably the best fighter in WA in the semifinal, to whom he lost by decision. With the tournament looking as though it had wrapped up for Kyanga, luck prevailed, with his semifinal opponent pulling out of the final.
The tournament organisers let Kyanga fight in the final, with the Geraldton resident jumping at the opportunity to have a crack at bringing home the Australian Club Championships title.
Kyanga excelled in the final, dominating the first round of the bout, with the fight coming to an end after the first round as Kyanga's hand was raised.
Kyanga's coach at PCYC, Jake Peacock, said he was immensely proud of the efforts put forward by his young fighter.
'Look, I am very proud of him to do what he did,' he said.
'To bounce back from a tough loss in the semi to then jump at the chance to fight in the final and do as well as he did was unreal.
'He showed a lot of character to stand up and do what he did.'
Peacock said the ever-improving Kyanga continued to impress and shine in the ring at training, and at bouts across Australia.
'He (Kyanga) is a star. He is always looking on how to improve,' Peacock said.
'Like I say, that's just a big improvement, because Eric fought that guy probably four to six weeks earlier, and Eric won a split decision, which is close, but Eric just totally dominated this time and came away with the title.'
Kyanga travelled to the Institute of Sport in Canberra last year and was able to train with some world-class athletes in boxing — among them Commonwealth Games silver medallist and Olympian Callum Peters.
Peters and Kyanga hit it off, with Peters becoming a mentor to Kyanga. On that weekend in South Australia, Peters was in attendance as Kyanga's hand was raised.
Peacock said Peters had been a massive influence on Kyanga's boxing career and it was a nice moment to see the two together with their titles.
'It was cool to see him there to see Eric after his fight,' Peacock said.
'Callum has been huge for Eric, and proved that in South Australia.
'It all went right for Eric and all played out nicely when he was given the chance to fight in the final.
'They say in boxing you need three things: hard work, talent, and a bit of luck along the way.'
Kyanga now prepares to fight in Perth on Saturday, June 14 at Boxing WA's 5RD Pound 4 Pound Champions Show.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
What successful athletes can teach us about self-doubt, even if you're not into sport
In his now-viral commencement speech for the 2024 graduating class of Dartmouth College, tennis great Roger Federer said that learning to master self-doubt is what makes a true champion. 'It's natural when you're down to doubt yourself and to feel sorry for yourself,' he said. 'Your opponents have self-doubt, too. Don't ever forget that. 'The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It's because they know they'll lose again and again, and have learned how to deal with it.' As we head into running season, hundreds of thousands of Australians are preparing to challenge themselves in one of many street events. Likely, there will be times of self-doubt. These elite athletes can teach us how to navigate it. And, if you're not a runner? Well, this is about running, but it's also not about running. Draw on the positives Jess Stenson may be one of the country's best marathon runners, but she's not immune to self-doubt. She admits being thrown by the 2024 Olympic marathon drama where she was selected over fellow Australian runner Lisa Weightman and public debate ensued. 'I've had some self-doubt for sure,' she says. The 37-year-old mum-of-two chose to channel the positives, such as thinking about the day she phoned her family to tell them she'd made the team. 'We were all crying, and they all said 'we are going to come and support you',' says the Lululemon-sponsored athlete. This was poignant: In late 2020, her father was diagnosed with a tumour. A difficult year of treatment followed and he was unable to see Stenson win gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Paris would be her 18th career marathon, so she focused her attention on the dream of having her whole family there to watch her for the first time. Ahead of any race, Stenson also anticipates having a mental wobble, so she writes positive words on her hand and picks tough points during the race to look at them. 'If there's been a theme of bravery in the lead up then that's the word I'll have,' she says. 'That word will trigger memories of this session I did when I didn't think I'd get through it.' Remember your resilience Sometimes it's the not positive experiences that help us through self-doubt, but the humbling ones. Kenyan-American athlete Betsy Saina, winner of the 2023 Sydney Marathon, was the favourite going into US Olympic trials in Florida last year. But she went in overtrained and underweight and by the 34 kilometre mark, the 36-year-old was suffering from dehydration and had to pull out. She sat by the side of the road and cried with frustration. 'There was no second chance,' she says. After giving herself the rest of the day to feel the depth of her disappointment, she decided she couldn't let it get the better of her. One month later she finished the Tokyo marathon in two hours and 19 minutes. She was the first American over the line, and her time was a three-minute personal best. 'It changed the perspective in me,' says the ASICS athlete, who came fifth in the 10,000 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 'You always celebrate when you get the chance to do it again – it's the redemption.' If it's redemption that helps her get back up when she's down, it's knowing her own strength that sustains her when the going gets tough mentally or physically. 'You don't know what or when you're eating next,' she says of growing up in Kenya. 'That builds resilience not just in racing but in life.' Redefine success Batt-Doyle enters each race not with one goal in mind but multiple. In Tokyo, her plan A was to run sub 31 minutes and break her own Australian record. But, if she realised during the race that her A goal was unattainable she would move to B, and, if necessary C or D. 'You're reshaping what success looks like – it's not just one goal and if you can't achieve it, it's all over.' She accepts that self-doubt may creep in at any stage of a race, she just needs to know what she will do with it when it appears. In this journey of 10,000 metres in Tokyo, her confidence and Plan A prevailed: She crossed the finish line in 30 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a new Australian record. It's an experience she will draw on the next time the going gets tough. 'I think of confidence as a bank,' adds McClurg. 'Every time we do hard things we drop a coin in the bank, so the next time we do something hard we have something to draw on.'
The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
What successful athletes can teach us about self-doubt, even if you're not into sport
In his now-viral commencement speech for the 2024 graduating class of Dartmouth College, tennis great Roger Federer said that learning to master self-doubt is what makes a true champion. 'It's natural when you're down to doubt yourself and to feel sorry for yourself,' he said. 'Your opponents have self-doubt, too. Don't ever forget that. 'The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It's because they know they'll lose again and again, and have learned how to deal with it.' As we head into running season, hundreds of thousands of Australians are preparing to challenge themselves in one of many street events. Likely, there will be times of self-doubt. These elite athletes can teach us how to navigate it. And, if you're not a runner? Well, this is about running, but it's also not about running. Draw on the positives Jess Stenson may be one of the country's best marathon runners, but she's not immune to self-doubt. She admits being thrown by the 2024 Olympic marathon drama where she was selected over fellow Australian runner Lisa Weightman and public debate ensued. 'I've had some self-doubt for sure,' she says. The 37-year-old mum-of-two chose to channel the positives, such as thinking about the day she phoned her family to tell them she'd made the team. 'We were all crying, and they all said 'we are going to come and support you',' says the Lululemon-sponsored athlete. This was poignant: In late 2020, her father was diagnosed with a tumour. A difficult year of treatment followed and he was unable to see Stenson win gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Paris would be her 18th career marathon, so she focused her attention on the dream of having her whole family there to watch her for the first time. Ahead of any race, Stenson also anticipates having a mental wobble, so she writes positive words on her hand and picks tough points during the race to look at them. 'If there's been a theme of bravery in the lead up then that's the word I'll have,' she says. 'That word will trigger memories of this session I did when I didn't think I'd get through it.' Remember your resilience Sometimes it's the not positive experiences that help us through self-doubt, but the humbling ones. Kenyan-American athlete Betsy Saina, winner of the 2023 Sydney Marathon, was the favourite going into US Olympic trials in Florida last year. But she went in overtrained and underweight and by the 34 kilometre mark, the 36-year-old was suffering from dehydration and had to pull out. She sat by the side of the road and cried with frustration. 'There was no second chance,' she says. After giving herself the rest of the day to feel the depth of her disappointment, she decided she couldn't let it get the better of her. One month later she finished the Tokyo marathon in two hours and 19 minutes. She was the first American over the line, and her time was a three-minute personal best. 'It changed the perspective in me,' says the ASICS athlete, who came fifth in the 10,000 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 'You always celebrate when you get the chance to do it again – it's the redemption.' If it's redemption that helps her get back up when she's down, it's knowing her own strength that sustains her when the going gets tough mentally or physically. 'You don't know what or when you're eating next,' she says of growing up in Kenya. 'That builds resilience not just in racing but in life.' Redefine success Batt-Doyle enters each race not with one goal in mind but multiple. In Tokyo, her plan A was to run sub 31 minutes and break her own Australian record. But, if she realised during the race that her A goal was unattainable she would move to B, and, if necessary C or D. 'You're reshaping what success looks like – it's not just one goal and if you can't achieve it, it's all over.' She accepts that self-doubt may creep in at any stage of a race, she just needs to know what she will do with it when it appears. In this journey of 10,000 metres in Tokyo, her confidence and Plan A prevailed: She crossed the finish line in 30 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a new Australian record. It's an experience she will draw on the next time the going gets tough. 'I think of confidence as a bank,' adds McClurg. 'Every time we do hard things we drop a coin in the bank, so the next time we do something hard we have something to draw on.'
Sydney Morning Herald
20-06-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Brisbane's abandoned 2032 Olympic Games
Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre Crisafulli was not the only premier to ignore the advice of a review he commissioned. Then-premier Steven Miles was widely criticised last year when he rejected the Quirk review's recommendation to build an Olympic stadium at Victoria Park and chose instead to host the Games' marquee events at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, formerly QEII Stadium. QSAC, which hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, would have been demolished to make way for a permanent, 14,000-seat athletics facility. Loading During the Olympics, temporary seating would have increased the capacity to 40,000 – the smallest Olympic stadium since Amsterdam 1928. All up, the project would have cost $1.6 billion – and that was before public transport improvements, which Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said would cost about $400 million, were factored in. The QSAC gambit received even more criticism last July, when this masthead revealed preliminary designs via a photocopied black-and-white image obtained via an earlier RTI application. Now, the high-resolution version can be revealed, along with a less fully formed concept that included a roof over all stands. The concepts are now moot, with Crisafulli accepting GIICA's recommendation that a stadium be built at Victoria Park, despite a pre-election promise that no new stadiums would be built for the Games. Crisafulli told the Property Council lunch on Tuesday that retaining QSAC would have been the 'politically convenient' choice for his new government. 'There is no way in God's name that to go and spend a bucketload of money on temporary stands at that venue would either be a legacy play, nor would it make us look like a grown-up, mature city when the eyes of the world are on us,' he said. 'So I took the decision that I would wear the political heat for it. I owned it and I have been genuinely heartened by people who have absorbed why the decision was taken.' The Miles government had planned to upgrade Suncorp Stadium ahead of Brisbane 2032 as the host venue for the opening and closing ceremonies. According to renders captured in this masthead's RTI request, those upgrades would not dramatically change the 52,500-seat venue, which was largely rebuilt more than 20 years ago. The upper corners would have been filled in with new screens, while a giant screen would have been installed overlooking the Caxton Street plaza outside the stadium. But while Suncorp Stadium upgrades no longer feature in the government's 2032 delivery plan, the upgrades could still be on the table. 'Suncorp Stadium is a world-class stadium, and we're not going to let it wither on the vine ahead of 2032,' Crisafulli said when he unveiled the Games delivery plan in March. 'It will continue to be a world-class stadium and we will invest in it.' Indoor Sports Centres Chandler's old outdoor velodrome was set to make way for an indoor sports centre as part of a $257 million overhaul of the erstwhile Commonwealth Games precinct before the 2032 Olympics. But the GIICA review found space constraints on the site would have added 'significant cost' to the project. 'While there is a strong legacy argument for developing an indoor sports centre at Chandler Sport Precinct, this is not an operationally viable option for Games time,' the GIICA report found. The planned Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports Centre, near the outdoor stadium at Kawana, has been scrapped in favour of the planned Horizon Centre at Maroochydore. It was a reversal of a 2023 Palaszczuk government decision to go with the Kawana sports precinct, which would have been under construction this year. The proposal had the support of then-Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson and local sporting groups.
