FEMALE BOXING HOPES FOR SLICE OF FUNDING

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23 November 2009

Emma Alie
news@southwarknews.org

Women in Southwark could be hot on the heels of World Champ David Haye, with hopes that a women’s boxing club could land a slice of a new £10 million sports fund.

Rebecca Donnelly, who runs mixed boxing sessions at the Lilian Baylis Old School Site in Kennington, was at the launch of the new Sport England Active Women's Fund that also took place at the site on November 11.

Rebecca, a former women's Thai World Boxing Champion and 2012 Olympic hopeful, spoke of her support for the nation-wide scheme, which aims to get more women back into sport, and her hopes that it could help her develop female boxing in Southwark.

She said: "There's a real demand for it, I think especially with the 2012 Olympics coming up we've had lots of women ringing up wanting to get involved. We have ladies of all different ages and from diverse ethnic backgrounds - Latin American, Muslim, it's a real mix.

"There's a mum who comes in with her husband and son, and they all take part, although they don't spar together of course!”

Current Sport England figures show that in disadvantaged communities including Southwark, only one in eleven women play sport on a regular basis, and across London the figures are still low, at only one in eight.

Rebecca believes that women's boxing could hold the key: "I think boxing can appeal to women because it gives you a good fitness base, and it's a good environment for improving you concentration and getting rid of stress.

I started boxing at the suggestion of my father, because he was worried about my safety when I was out late, but it offers much more, as well as the self defence aspect."

The Sport England fund, which will be open to applications from community and sports groups aimed at women from early next year, will potentially help women across the borough get into regular sport.

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