2020: A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER

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AMATEUR boxing has never experienced a year like 2020. The coronavirus pandemic shut down the amateur sport. It ended club shows and domestic championships. The Olympic Games was expected to dominate this year. Instead Tokyo 2020 has moved to 2021. Two continental qualification events were completed, one was shut down three days into the tournament and the rest still need to be finished.

It wouldn’t be fair to select boxers of the year when amateur competition was so drastically restricted. But honourable mentions should go to Great Britain’s Galal Yafai and Peter McGrail. They secured qualifying places for the Tokyo Games under tremendous pressure mere hours before the European qualifier in London had to be suspended. With so much on the line both boxed well and Yafai secured a notable win over Russia’s heavy-handed Rasul Saliev to become a two-time Olympian.

For the rest of the team their tournament had barely begun. The cancellation came just the day before Luke