The Larches and Savick Boxing Academy have won the Club of the Year Award at the Preston Sports Awards.
The Club has had a year of transformation and success which has seen them move into a brand new £300,000 state-of-the-art boxing facility which is attracting young people from throughout the whole of Preston and Lancashire. Whilst undergoing the upheaval of managing the new build, they still maintained a boxing facility for the young people of Larches and Savick and beyond and achieved some amazing results.
In the past year they have seen two ABA national champions – Senior Male (Scott Fitzgerald) and Senior Female (Lisa Whiteside). Both national champions have been chosen as funded athletes for the GB team and are now commonwealth and Olympic hopefuls. Larches and Savick is the only club in Great Britain to have two seniors in the GB team – a major achievement for Preston.
Lisa has represented GB in the European and World Championship winning gold in the EU competition and is now ranked number two in the world in her category.
In the last year the club had five NW champions at various levels including Novice, Under 25s and Senior.
Since the opening of the new gym word has spread about the quality of the facilities and the talent and dedication of the coaches and the club now sees on average more than 100 young people coming through their doors every week. The club is also now able to offer full gym and training facilities offering new opportunities to the people of Preston.
The club is now seem as a real community facility and in addition to the regular classes it runs, it holds training classes for disabled youngsters, youngsters with learning difficulties and students from UCLAN.
The three co-founders – David Fitzgerald, Jimmy Moon and Joe Kilshaw – are totally dedicated to the boxing club and supporting the young people of Larches and Savick and beyond and are proud of the new facilities and the achievements they have seen this year and look forward to the club going from strength to strength in the future.