BOXING Scotland moved quickly to defuse a potential row before the Commonwealth Games fight squad being announced yesterday in Glasgow.

One place - in the 69kg weight category - has still to be confirmed, but the other nine spots have been alocated after officials rejected an appeal in the 75kg class.

Lochend's Aston Brown appealed against Kieran Smith's selection after the Livingston middleweight was chosen ahead of him. But Fraser Walker, chief operating officer of Boxing Scotland, mindful of past spats involving team selections, moved quickly to convene an appeals hearing.

He said: "The appeals panel met yesterday and the decision was to reject the appeal on behalf of Aston and to uphold the nomination of Kieran Smith."

Smith, 20, beat Brown in the recent Scottish Championships and Walker confirmed that it was one of the factors that led to him being nominated in the first instance, but he stressed that the selection policy was deliberately more objective than subjective.

"Previously, in Melbourne and Manchester and Games before that, the standard practice was if somebody won the Scottish Championships that was a kind of golden ticket to go to the Commonwealth Games.

"But we thought that it was the wrong approach, because one performance doesn't necessarily make you the best swimmer, athlete, boxer or whatever. So this time round we implemented a points-based system along with other mechanisms such as attendance at training sessions, weight management etc.

"But the more obvious one was the point-scoring opportunity at different competitions, which were weighted in terms of difficulty. When it came to the nominations, in quite a few of the weights there were more than one boxer in contention. In the 75kg category two boxers had made the minimum standard and it was a close decision. But the evidence based on performance, plus the other factors swung it in favour of Kieran Smith."

Smith, for his part, feels little sympathy for his rival after he pointed out: "It's sport, at the end of the day and, if you are going to be smashing each other in the face, you can't be friends, so it doesn't really sadden me.

"I've not been in touch with Aston. There has been a bit of rivalry for a while. We were friends right up until the finals of the Scottish last year, when I believed I'd won but he got the decision. Since then, it's been gone.

"It's the guy's livelihood, the same as it is for me, and it must be heartbreaking. But you can't have too much sympathy in boxing. There is no easy way in this sport. The two of us trained so hard for so long, just to get one place, but that's how it is.

"It's not going to worry me. I'm going to the Games and there wasn't much doubt in my mind after the Scottish Championships. After getting gold, I kind of knew that I was No. 1. There is always maybe a little doubt in the back of your mind. But the Scottish Championships wasn't just a one-off. It's based on the last year and I was top of the points table.

"There is pressure the way the selection has come about, but I believe I fight better under pressure and I don't expect anything less than a gold medal. That's all I think about, every morning when I wake up. It was in my head that, if I lost, I wasn't going to be at Glasgow 2014, and I would have left the country, definitely."

Boxing has been consistently successful, winning medals at every Games; a total of 59, 15 of them gold.

The Lochend light-welterweight Josh Taylor won silver in Delhi four years ago and is strongly fancied to go one better. The remainder of the team comprises: Aqeel Ahmed (Motherwell) 49kg, Reece McFadden (Motherwell) 52kg, Joe Ham (Glasgow) 56kg, Charlie Flynn (Motherwell) 60kg, Scott Forrest (Forth) 81kg, Stephen Lavelle (Glasgow) 91kg and Ross Henderson (Motherwell) 91+kg.