TRANENT-based Bronx Boxing Gym has enjoyed a hugely successful Scottish Novice Championships, on the back of one of the gym’s young starlets impressing for Scotland.

Firstly, John McCallum Junior was in action against another Scottish champion, Tony Orr, from Greenock Boxing Gym, in his first competition of the new season.

And the county prodigy was in impressive form, defeating his older opponent, who was also a silver medallist at the British Championships last season.

He then went through a rigorous week of training to prepare himself for international honours, as he joined the Scotland team set to battle Wales.

There, he boxed superbly against Morgan Gay, to claim victory and help Team Scotland to an overall 8-5 win.

And there was further success for the gym last weekend for Daryl Brown, Jay Colbourne and Ben Cymber, who were in competition at the Scottish Novice Championships at Ravenscraig last weekend.

The trio took the championships by storm, each claiming an emphatic gold medal.

Colbourne won each of his four bouts in impressive style to claim his gold, while Cymber got through two fights to claim his coveted gold medal.

Brown, who went straight into his final, was also in impressive form as he won every round on the judges’ scorecards to take the Tranent gym’s third gold medal.

Colbourne was competing in the 34kg, while Brown and Cymber took gold in the 38kg weight category for their respective age groups.

The county’s other boxing gym, Haddington-based East Lothian Amateur Boxing Club, had one finalist, Damian Pytlarz, who was defeated by Jordan Penny of North Glasgow.

And John McCallum Senior, who runs the Bronx, was delighted with their success.

He told Courier Sport: “This gym is on fire with talent, and as I always tell them: ‘Train hard and fighting is the easy bit.’ “These boys have been in the gym every day for the last 14 days training with myself and John [McCallum] Jnr and [coach] Richard Snaith.” Meanwhile, Richard Thomas, chairman of Boxing Scotland, also paid tribute to the gym’s achievements.

He said: “While all the boxers who took part should be commended, particular congratulations must go to the Bronx Boxing Club which produced three champions from three entries, closely followed by Glasgow Phoenix, Dennistoun, McNair and Inverness boxing clubs, which all produced three champions.” And the early-season success follows a good summer for the Tranent-based gym, which played host to several members of the Rwandan team as part of their preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Four of the African country’s boxers trained at the gym, and were part of a 10-strong team who enjoyed a week-long training camp in East Lothian before they moved into the athletes village.

And coach John Snr was confident that the impressive quartet would be among the medals again in the future.

“There will be more to come from these boys,” he added.