There was cause to celebrate for Beath Boxing Club as one of their young fighters, Robbie Neilson, has been crowned Scottish champion for the third time.
The 15-year-old will be in action again on Sunday with a bout in the club's next show, ‘The St Valentine's Day Massacre’, and will jet off to Spain for a training camp in the summer.
Beath coach and founder, Jon-Paul Hynd, said “We do four shows a year and once guys get to a certain level, we enter them into the Scottish championships.
"We had a number of guys enter an event in October and they picked up six gold medals and one silver at the championships.”
The competition was for boxers with seven or more fights, which Robbie was eligible for.
This was his third gold medal in three years with Beath.
In the three competitive seasons that the club have entered, they have had 11 gold medals and nine silver medals from 22 entries, making for a very impressive success rate.
This summer, Robbie and several of the other boxers from the club will fly out to Totana in Spain for a week long training camp.
Jon-Paul said: “Robbie missed it last year with another family holiday, but he’s told his family he’s coming with the team this year!
"He turns 16 during the trip so it will be strange for him having a birthday without his parents there, but he’s adamant that’s what he wants to do.
"It was a successful trip last summer, with those who went going on to later success in the year."
He continued: “Of the seven lads we took last year, six of them ended up medalling at the Scottish Championships in October, so it’s definitely made a difference for them.
“It’s fully funded by the club, as we as coaches wanted to make sure that there’s no exclusion because of money or anything like that, so flights, hotels, everything is paid for by the gym.”
Jon-Paul emphasised the importance of the club to kids in the community and added: “The club belongs to the kids of the area. I’m just the guy who set it up.
"The rest of it is down to the boxers. We were clear from the start we would not be for profit and every penny we made would be put in to getting kids the best experiences they could get.
“All the coaches, including myself, do this in our spare time. We do it because someone else did it for us when we were young and started boxing.
"We want to bring forward the next generation and hopefully we can leave a legacy for the next 30-40 years, maybe longer, for all the kids in the area.”
Beath Boxing Club, based on the High Street in Cowdenbeath, began in 2019.
Jon-Paul said: “We have kids as young as four training with us, all the way up to guys in their 40s or 50s.
"We’ve just recently started an all-women’s class too. The club was initially planned with me, another coach and then one boxer.
"We were going to rent a space off another gym. This was back in 2019.
“We now have 12 coaches, over 200 members, 30 of which are registered boxers. We’ve just recently renovated the gym, as we don’t want to turn kids away because we don’t have space.
"Some classes we have 50 kids in, and we’re running out of space.”
The St Valentine's Day Massacre will take place this Sunday, February 11, at the British Legion in Crossgates. Tickets priced at £20.
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