A round may last minutes, but Lyons Brook boxer Brody Blair knows that golden opportunities can fade in a fraction of a second.
About 30 seconds into his final bout against Vincent Thibault for Canada's final team selection, Blair saw an opening he's trained for years to watch for. He didn't let it slip away.
"He just opened up a little bit wide," says Blair. "I just seen it at the last second. I threw the right hand out and it happened to catch him perfect."
His fist landed square on Thibault's chin. Thibault dropped to the ground.
"When he got up, I knew he wasn't the same," says Blair.
At 31 seconds the bout was over and Blair's career as a senior national rep has begun.
Blair had already proved he was the national champ in December and had the gold medal from the senior nationals to show for it.
Friday's bout proved it wasn't just a matter of luck or coincidence as he defended his right for a spot on Canada's A team, whose members represent the nation at international events.
Because he was the national champion, he had to be beaten twice in the competition. He ended up facing Thibault twice. In the first match they battled back and forth to a 15-14 decision with Thibault named the victor.
The next day they met again in a winner take all match.
Nova Scotia head amateur coach Wayne Gordon says Blair impressed all with the maturity he showed throughout the competition. From losing the first bout with Thibault in the final seconds to his dramatic finish of the second.
"Brody definitely took care of it and just destroyed the guy the first round," Gordon said. "He may be 19 years old, but he boxes with a lot more maturity than that."
Being just 19 years old and winning a Canadian title at 75 kilos is a major accomplishment, says Gordon.
Blair has been dreaming of this kind of success from the first time he strapped on a pair of boxing gloves when he was 10 years old. There have been ups and downs throughout his career, but his progress has been steady but not easy. He had just turned 13 when he made his first trip to nationals to compete as a cadet in the 114 pound category, but it wasn't until 2009 that he won his first gold at the junior nationals in Edmonton in March 2009 and earned him the right to represent Canada in boxing bouts in Poland, Lithuania and Puerto Rico.
It may have been a surprise when he won gold then, but it wasn't this year. People expect him to hit hard and compete every round.
"People up there were asking me, 'What do you do? How do you win?' I just said, 'The hard work. You got to put the hard work into it. There's no secret ingredient. It's just all the hard work,'" says Blair.
He'll have to carry on that work ethic into the summer as he prepares for a busy schedule of national training and tournaments and hopefully an appearance at either the Pan-Am Games or World Championships in late summer. Medals at either event could qualify him for his ultimate dream – the Olympics.
As a man who has lived that dream, Wayne Gordon knows how slim a chance any athlete has of making it reality. For years he was told he couldn't and wouldn't make it. But he did. And he believes that Blair can do the same.
"There's no reason why that chance can't be there for him," says Gordon.
Blair knows how to take advantage of opportunities as slim and short as they may be.
