A GRANDSTAND finish by Cardigan ABC’s Ioan Croft came just too late to capture the gold medal at the Three Nations international tournament, held at Motherwell’s huge Ravenscraig Sports Centre last weekend.

The 16-year-old from Crymych had been bidding to secure a second Three Nations crown to emulate his success of 2015.

The fact that Croft had beat Scotsman Nicholas Devlin in the semi-finals - the opponent he had defeated en route to Three Nations glory three years previously - appeared to be a good omen.

Pitted against England’s Joe Tyres in the final, however, southpaw Croft appeared to pay the price for an over-cautious start.

With the English boy having seemingly taken the first round, Croft then started getting into his stride in the second.

The Welsh lad appeared to gain the upper hand in the third and final session, catching Tyres with good, clean shots.

Yet it was not quite enough to make up for his slow start, and a crestfallen Croft ultimately dropped a 4-1 split decision.Although Croft had struggled to make the 56kg limit for the contest, his father, Cardigan ABC head coach Guy Croft, was refusing to cite that as an excuse.

“I’m not sure weight is all to blame, Ioan’s been finishing strong at the end of every round and his third round is always his best," he said."He just takes a little while to get the measure of his opponent, which isn’t such a bad thing although on this occasion it probably cost him the fight.

“Joe has had something like 75 bouts, only lost 12, and is 13 months older. Ioan’s had 62, lost 10, so it was a good match.”

Southpaw Croft warmed up for this the Championships in Motherwell with a commanding victory over Cornwall’s Mark Meadon down in Bodmin.

Boxing at 57kg, Croft, 16, took control from the start, working a lot to the body.

Meadon, of Bodmin ABC, received two standing eight counts, and did well to last the three rounds, before dropping a unanimous points decision to his opponent.

On the same show Croft’s twin brother Garan controlled his 62kg contest against Dean Thomas (Bodmin ABC) from beginning to end, picking his shots nicely against a strong aggressive opponent en route to being awarded a split decision.Ioan Croft had also recently made the long trip north to Yorkshire, and in Subhaan Ahmed (KBW ABC) he faced an opponent who lost in the English final to Joe Tyers.

Ahmed came out fast and it took Ioan most of the round to work him out, but the second round saw Croft take control with lovely accurate boxing, slowing his opponent with some cracking body shots.

Both boys went toe-to-toe in the final round, with the Crymych boxer taking a split decision after a high quality bout.