Twin abilities and twin dreams. Meet Luke and Pat McCormack, who fight in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals on Friday.
The 22-year-olds share the distinction, along with England’s World Cup goalkeeping hopeful, Jordan Pickford, as the best gloved talents to come out of Washington.
Luke and Pat are seriously good and they’ve won loads over the years.
Now they are looking to make a serious bit of history by striking gold at the Commonwealth Games.
Twelve months ago, the Birtley boxers emerged from Kharkiv, in the grim, conflict-hit eastern reaches of the Ukraine with a pair of silver medals at the European Championships.
Fast forward a year and 10,000 miles to the sunshine of the Gold Coast in Australia and the pair have their sights set on major championship success.
Luke (pictured right) goes at light-welterweight, with Pat one division up at welter.
Having seen off Kavuma Ssemujja, Sean McComb and Liam Wilson, Luke will now tackle the beautifully-named Jonas Jonas, from Namibia.
Pat, following emphatic wins over Jonathan Francois and Musa Bwogi, now has Indian opposition, Manoj Kumar, who has made spectacular progress of his own in the tournament.
Luke’s reaction to his unanimous win over Wilson summed up the McCormack attitude. They had already secured medals for the McCormacks, Washington, Birtley ABC and England, but that’s not enough.
“It’s a bronze medal but I’m not even bothered about bronze,” said Luke. “I want gold, nothing less.”
Their goals are the same, of course, they want to be on top of that podium with the St George’s flag fluttering above them.
But the Commonwealth Games represent a defining moment for the pair coached long-term by Graeme Rutherford at Birtley and the GB staff at the English Institute of Sport.
For Pat, the higher ranked of the brothers, this is the mid-point in the Olympic cycle.
Excellent in Rio, where he was unfortunate to bow out to the eventual champion, many, including former Olympic medalist and ex-WBC champ Richie Woodhall, see him as favourite for U69 gold in Tokyo.
For Pat, gold at the Commonwealths, following that silver in the Europeans, would lay a significant marker, as well as boost his confidence, which is already bubbling at a high level.
For Luke, rated at number three in Europe, Commonwealth gold will cement his place in the top echelons of the light-welterweights.
This is his second year up a division and will give him a platform for Tokyo.
It would be a little unfair to say Luke is in Pat’s shadow, he is a class act in his own right. He missed out on a spot in Rio – though he won the Olympic Test Event there – but has taken silver, like Pat, at the Euros and has clinched two good wins in the World Series of Boxing this year.
Gold on the Gold Coast would represent something special.
Words: Roy Kelly
