Guernsey Press

Almost the perfect year for Gold Coast bound Billy

ONE defeat in eight bouts spread across 2017 meant it was not quite the perfect year for boxer Billy Le Poullain.

Published
Ring-fenced prize: Sports editor Rob Batiste hands over the Sporting Achievement of the Year trophy to boxer Billy Le Poullain. (Picture by Ben Fiore)

It took an ABA national champion and Great Britain Olympic hope – Harris Akbar – to get the better of the Amalgamated Boys Club star, but all things considered such was the consistent excellence of the best welterweight the Bailiwick has seen in modern times, that he was always going to be a strong candidate for the Guernsey Press Sporting Achievement of the Year trophy awarded annually since 2002.

The list of previous winners is in itself a list of Who’s Who of modern Sarnian sporting legends.

You will find the likes of Andy Priaulx, Dale Garland, Tobyn Horton, James McLaughlin and snooker greats Martin Desperques and Adam Shorto, among the select engravings on the beautiful Bruce Russell Silversmith design, not to mention the Chalmers brothers, Cameron and Alastair, who so excelled in 2016, that they jointly won our special award.

The Chalmers boys were no less superb over the past 12 months, but with an unwritten ‘rule’ that no individual can win the trophy in successive years, Le Poullain had a clearer run to the recognition of the paper’s sports staff.

Le Poullain and the Chalmers siblings shine in sporting environments a world apart, but as all three will be on the plane to the Gold Coast and the Commonwealth Games in April, they will soon be team colleagues and wearing the same island colours on the biggest stage the vast majority of Sarnian sports stars will ever reach.

Guernsey have never previously produced a boxer of sufficient class to compete on such an elevated international stage, but given Le Poullain’s emergence as one of the very finest amateur 69k pugilists in the UK with a record to match, the widespread opinion is that the Commonwealths is unlikely to be a step too far for a highly-committed individual that the small club in Saints Road should treasure for putting them on the national map.

He is not going to make up the numbers either, landing gold is a realistic target he insists.

With Akbar unlikely to be chosen by England, you wouldn’t put it past him either, although the very nature of the sport and the luck of the draw, should temper any wild pre-tournament speculation.

But the very fact that the largely Ridunian raised boxer is a threat to anyone from the Home Nations, makes him as good a medal hope among the 33 chosen to represent our bailiwick in Australia. Fingers crossed.