Northland boxers claim national light welterweight crowns

Two out of four ain't bad when it comes to winning New Zealand Boxing titles.
After a successful three-day tournament, Northland's four-strong contingent returned from the National Championships in Christchurch with two new national champions.
United Boxing Gym's Reece Birmingham was crowned the 2010 NZ Junior Boys light welterweight 63kg champion, while Whangarei Boxing Gym's Deanne Carpenter was named the Junior Girls light welterweight 60kg national champ after defeating her club mate Kaylah Munday.
Fifteen-year-old Birmingham backed up his 2009 nationals campaign where he took out the cadet division, by winning his second consecutive title.
Birmingham stopped opponent Naenae's Troy Broad in the second round of his first bout on Friday which put him in the final, up against Te Awamutu's Tyler Jeffries on Saturday.
The Whangarei boxer was the stronger of the duo, comfortably defeating Jeffries, 6-1, pleasing trainer Ricci Malcolm.
"It's his first year fighting in this division and he's up against older fighters - up to 17 years old. But he's a growing lad and we would have to starve him to keep him in the lower weight division, he did well," Malcolm said.
Birmingham's 17-year-old club-mate Brad Day was unfortunate to draw top card Harrison Scaife, of Heretaunga Club, for his first round on Thursday evening, fighting in the 64kg Youth (17-19 years) Boys class.
Day lost to Scaife, who progressed to the final, 15-5, but trainer Malcolm believed the score should have been more like 15-10.
"There are a few disgruntled people down here because the scoring system seems ridiculous ... there are a lot of boxers going through rounds scoring zero, even if their punches are obvious. There are five judges to cover the whole ring, but you wouldn't want to be fighting in the corner, because they don't seem to be seeing anything ... it's a bit of a lucky dip," Malcolm said.
Day's age group was also affected by a rule change. Boxers had to contest 3x3 minute rounds instead of the 4x2 rounds boxers like Day had trained for.
"We didn't know about the rule change so it was a bit of a surprise," Malcolm said.
Meanwhile, a lack of competitors in the junior girls light welterweight division forced Whangarei Boxing Gym's Munday and Carpenter to fight each other. Carpenter (57kg) weighed in with her clothes on to match Munday (62kg) to get a bout after all the hard work they invested into the campaign over the past three months.
Although Munday led the first round 2-1, Carpenter's better guard and straighter punches saw her gain dominance. She won 7-4.