ASHFORD Boxing Club has a national champion and two Southern Counties champions in Levi Smith and Russell Brooker.

Levi won through to the finals of the national Golden Belt championships in Liverpool. And on a glorious night Levi Smith returned as the national Golden Belt winner in class B 57-60kg.

Travelling with coaches D.Jarvis and B.Jones, Levi had an overnight stay before arriving at the Everton sports complex.

The bout was against D.Baptist from Bracebridge, representing the North-Western Counties.

The first round started with Smith scoring with a straight left-right within 10 seconds and then moved back, but Baptist came on strong, trying to counter. With further punishment from Levi’s quick punching, Baptist never stopped trying his best. By the end of the round the computer score was in favour of Smith 5-1.

The second round followed the same pattern with Levi leading with an 8-1 margin.

During the third and final round, Baptist produced a hard left hook, but Levi gathered himself together and came back with a good combination, leaving his opponent holding on to recover.

Both boxers set a fast pace in the last 30 seconds, although the Ashford boxer was always quicker to get his shots off and Smith claimed the title with a computer score of 14-2.

In preliminary rounds to reach the national championships, Levi beat A.Gunning of Herne Bay. This was an entertaining bout at the Brompton Show with Levi winning unanimously.

Brooker got to the semi-finals of the national Golden Belt championship (54-57kg), but lost to T.Smith of Danson.

In earlier rounds leading up to the semis, Russell beat M.Goddard (Basingstoke) in the association finals and L.Clarke from Lydney, representing Western Counties.

In the second fight both boxers received standing counts in rounds two and three. As Russell has performed extremely well in a first season, coach Jarvis will be enterting the fighter in next year’s championships.

Jarvis, Jones and Jamie Carter would like to thank Eddie Thompson and Michael May for the help as sparring partners for the two champion boxers.Thompson and May will also be entering the same championship next season.