HEADS-UP: Flaxmere Boxing Academy junior coach Loughlan Wardlaw-Wright (left) checks potential prodigy Colten Garrentt before a training exhibition at the opening of new academy facilities yesterday. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN
Another corner was turned in the short history of the Flaxmere Boxing Academy with the opening of its new gymnasium facilities yesterday.
A dream of the U-Turn Trust, based in Flaxmere, the academy was started three years ago and operated initially from premises run by fireman and former national light-heavyweight
boxing champion Craig McDougall at Stortford Lodge.
Late yesterday a range of community and business leaders gathered at Flaxmere Community Centre facilities to "welcome it home", in the words of community advocate and Hastings District Council Flaxmere ward member Henare O'Keefe.
They included Mayor of Hastings Lawrence Yule, Hawke's Bay executive District Court judge Bridget Mackintosh, and sponsors and supporters including Andy and Liz Lowe, Simon Tremain, and Unison Group representative Danny Gough.
The unique gym, blending actual boxing training with work in the fitness and disciplines of the pugilistic sport, was made complete with the recent arrival of a second-hand boxing ring from a community boxing club in Hamilton suburb Nawton.
