Hastings Giants Boxing Academy pair taste Golden Gloves success

North Island Golden Gloves champions Harvey Madden (left) and Renee Doole. Photo / Paul Taylor

Craig McDougall is someone who emphasises the importance of the journey, rather than the destination.

That’s why the Hastings Giants boxing coach wasn’t unhappy when young charge Renee Doole suffered her first defeat in the ring recently.

Fresh off success at the North Island Golden Gloves, the 16-years youth female 60kg fighter was beaten by unanimous decision by Australia’s Abbie McTeare at the recent Youth Tri-Nations tournament in Auckland.

Doole, along with Giants clubmate and fellow North Island Golden Gloves champion Harvey Madden, needs all the experience she can get and there’s only one place to do that, says McDougall.

“Your job is to score points without getting hit, then things get easier,’’ McDougall said.

“That takes time, you don’t learn that overnight, but these two kids are starting to get there.”

McDougall, who is back in Hawke’s Bay after receiving cancer treatment in Mexico, couldn’t be in Doole’s corner in Auckland. But again, he says that just provides more experience for her to build on.

Doole won the first round against McTeare, but wasn’t able to maintain that effort.

“Mentally she wasn’t quite there, but it would’ve been different if I was there,” said McDougall.

“She had a new team, a new corner, so it was all a bit different.”

But that’s all part of the learning process in boxing, McDougall says.

Doole, with McDougall’s blessing, opted not to fight at this year’s Oceania Youth Championships, in favour of getting more competitive rounds under her belt at home.

McDougall believes that’s beginning to pay off and says Doole is poised to become “a regular New Zealand representative in her adult years”.

Madden extended his experience in the ring with a trip to the Oceania Championships in Samoa, returning with a silver medal in the 16-years male junior 70kg division.