Boxer aiming for 2000 Olympics

Page 7

They call him a natural, an athlete born with talent to spare and the drive to succeed beyond anyone's dreams or expectations.

From the first time he put on the gloves in 1996, 16-year-old Bryan Whitstone knew he had found his sport.

After only three weeks of intensive training at the Lloydminster Boxing Club, Whitstone was in the ring for his first amateur fight. Four months later, he had cleaned up at his first tournament, the Alberta Silver Gloves, a tournament for boxers with fewer than 10 fights under their belts.

By the end of the summer that year, he had brought home gold medals from the Western Canadian Golden Gloves, the Saskatchewan Open and the North American Indigenous Games. He also took a silver medal at the prestigious Canadian Junior Nationals held in Lloydminster in April that year.

A serious illness forced Whitstone out of training for close to a year, but he returned in October of 1998 to win six of the eight tournaments he entered.

After his comeback in the ring, Whitstone was more than a little surprised to find out that he had been chosen to compete this March, as a core member of the Team Saskatchewan boxing team, at the 1999 Canadian Winter Games in Newfoundland.

"Bryan was chosen for the Winter Games because he's the best 139-pounder in Saskatchewan," said Gordon Blanchard, coach of the Lloydminster Boxing Club and manager of Team Saskatchewan's boxing team. "He trains very hard and is more of a natural boxer than the other kids, he picks things up very quickly."

To honor his accomplishments and achievements, about 100 people, including friends, family, fellow boxers and Elders, gathered at a supper in Onion Lake to offer congratulations and wish him good luck.

"It feels great to know that people in my school and community are very proud of me and want me to succeed; that means a lot," said Whitstone.

As a guy who has spent most of his life living on the wide open Canadian Prairies, Whitstone was clearly impressed when he landed in Corner Brook, Nfld. for the Winter Games.

"It was pretty deadly over there and we had a beautiful view flying into 'The Rock'. It's really different there, a different bunch of mountains, and rocky everywhere you looked. They treated and fed us really well and it was good to rub shoulders with intermediate level boxers in all the different weight levels from all over Canada."

In the 62.5 kilo light-welterweight division, Whitstone took on the best in the country, winning his first against Manitoba and losing to Quebec in the second.

He still has a shot at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney with the Canadian boxing team, if he can pull off gold in the rest of his competitions this year, including an important fight on April 8 at the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Winter Games in Regina.

"I still have a chance of making the Olympic boxing team, but it will take a lot of roadwork, running, jogging, punching the bag, lifting weights and trying to find some good sparring partners. As an athlete in training, I don't smoke, eat a good healthy diet with lots of fruit and veggies and I stay away from drugs. The best thing about boxing is that it keeps you in top shape, gives you a chance to travel and meet new friends," said the Grade 10 student at Eagleview High School.