Edwards' future in doubt

Boxing coach yet to agree new deal

Last updated: 7th October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Edwards' future in doubt

Edwards: Unsure on his position

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Boxing coach Terry Edwards has admitted that he is yet to commit his future to the Great Britain team for the London 2012 Olympics, despite seven hours of meetings with UK Sport on Friday.

Edwards, who led Great Britain to a gold and two bronze medals in Beijing, had been hailed by many as the pivotal figure in Great Britain's best Olympic boxing performance in more than half a century.

However, his position within British boxing has been thrown in to doubt following a restructuring of the sport in recent weeks.

UK Sport, which distributed lottery money to Olympic sports, has recently handed the running of the elite GB performance programme to British Amateur Boxing Association, an umbrella group for the Amateur Boxing Associations of England, Wales and Scotland.

With his future now cast into uncertainty following this move, Edwards attended seven hours of meetings with UK Sport on Friday, but left the talks claiming to have been given no clear indication of his role within British boxing.

Rumours

"I haven't seen any of the detail, I don't even know what my job is," Edwards told The Times.

"I put the last programme in place myself, I'm not putting my name to something when I don't even know what this programme will be."

And Edwards admitted that he remains in the dark as to whether a performance director will be appointed over his head, or if the programme will ultimately be regionalised.

"There have been a lot of rumours," added Edwards.

"The purpose of a lot of it seems to be to heal rifts. We are supposed to shake hands and put our nose back to the grindstone. But some of those wounds won't just go away."

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Comments (3)

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Liam Alloway says...

talking of coaches who should get involved with the Gb setup , David Alloway should be given a chance as hes got loads of international experiance and is renound as a world class coach by many of the elite boxers that have boxed internatinally. Also many kids and expirenced boxers go to his club at Bracknell abc for his advice a, guidance and training, james degale even came down the bracknell abc gym all the way from london on a thursday night at rush hour to get training with him! James called Dave his "main man" as soon as he saw Dave and the smile on his face was just like the cat out of alice and wonderland! so if terry edwards or anybody at the abae is reading get this man involved and use his vast array of boxing coaching skills and knowledge!

Posted 09:03 7th October 2008

Stuart Hawkins says...

It would not have mattered who was in the corner. Kenny Egan totally outclassed Jeffries at the olympics. Terry Edwards is a fine coach who has proven himself at the olympics and should be retained in his present role.

Posted 22:09 6th October 2008

Graham Richards says...

If Terry Edwards doesn't carry on through to 2012, we need young, innovative coaches who the team will really respond to. Someone like Dave Binns who runs the National Academy up in Durham would be the perfect choice. If Dave had been in Tony Jeffries corner in Beijing we would have had two gold medals instead of one!!

Posted 10:45 6th October 2008
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