At the age of three, Arthur Biyarslanov fled with his family from the war-ravaged frontier of Chechnya. Narrowly escaping bullets and a bomb that destroyed the car in front of his family, Arthur and his brother ran to the border and forded a freezing river to safety. He became a refugee first in Azerbaijan, and ultimately in Canada. In spite of these difficult experiences, and the trials that confront any child refugee in strange lands, Arthur thrived on the discipline and camaraderie of sport, taking up first competitive soccer and then boxing. Years of dedication and discipline have made him into a champion boxer at age 20, winning the first Pan Am Games gold medal in boxing for Canada in 40 years in 2015 and qualifying for the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Written from extensive interviews with Arthur and his family, Next Round is the story of Arthur's journey from frightened little boy to confident soccer player and eventually to a world-class amateur boxer.
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Next Round: A Young Athlete's Journey to Gold
At the age of three, Arthur Biyarslanov fled with his family from the war-ravaged frontier of Chechnya. Narrowly escaping bullets and a bomb that destroyed the car in front of his family, Arthur and his brother ran to the border and forded a freezing river to safety. He became a refugee first in Azerbaijan, and ultimately in Canada. In spite of these difficult experiences, and the trials that confront any child refugee in strange lands, Arthur thrived on the discipline and camaraderie of sport, taking up first competitive soccer and then boxing. Years of dedication and discipline have made him into a champion boxer at age 20, winning the first Pan Am Games gold medal in boxing for Canada in 40 years in 2015 and qualifying for the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Written from extensive interviews with Arthur and his family, Next Round is the story of Arthur's journey from frightened little boy to confident soccer player and eventually to a world-class amateur boxer.
At the age of three, Arthur Biyarslanov fled with his family from the war-ravaged frontier of Chechnya. Narrowly escaping bullets and a bomb that destroyed the car in front of his family, Arthur and his brother ran to the border and forded a freezing river to safety. He became a refugee first in Azerbaijan, and ultimately in Canada. In spite of these difficult experiences, and the trials that confront any child refugee in strange lands, Arthur thrived on the discipline and camaraderie of sport, taking up first competitive soccer and then boxing. Years of dedication and discipline have made him into a champion boxer at age 20, winning the first Pan Am Games gold medal in boxing for Canada in 40 years in 2015 and qualifying for the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Written from extensive interviews with Arthur and his family, Next Round is the story of Arthur's journey from frightened little boy to confident soccer player and eventually to a world-class amateur boxer.
John Spray grew up in the Midwest and spent years as a successful amateur boxer, gym rat and boxing fanatic. He has been a Private Investigator in Toronto for forty years and is the owner and founder of Mantis Investigation. John also sponsors the annual John Spray Mystery Award for excellence in mystery writing for children.
This is a book by John Spray on Arthur Biyarslanov and it's about the next round, ironically....This book chronicles the story of him coming from Chechnya via Azerbaijan and to Halifax in 2005 where the family was met by the refugee relocation committee of the UN, put up for 5 days there and ultimately on to Toronto. A decade later, a gold medallist at the Pan American Games and now the 21year old has designs on a championship here in Rio.
The DO Boxing Show Dameon Okposio
[Next Round is] a good read, approximately 104 pages in total. It’s got very sharp black and white pictures with a brilliant, colour photo-essay in the middle... It tells you a lot about Arthur, who’s very charismatic, but also a quiet kind of guy who works extremely hard… As we all know, there’s not much coverage of Canadian athletes, much less Canadian boxers, so I think this book is a brilliant, brilliant play…good on you John Spray, good on you Arthur Biyarslanov…This book is a great promotional item and a fantastic idea.