BRADFORD’S Lion Gym have had more success at amateur level.

The local boxing club entered three of their talented fighters into the England Boxing Development Championships, and once against Lion have come out with flying colours.

Amateur prospect Jamie Broom, female talent Shorna Larkman and Gerald Hendron were the three individuals who participated in the event, which commenced on October 1 with the latter stages of the competition coming to an end on October 22.

Broom, along with Hendron were crowned Yorkshire champions at the start of October, which set them up nicely for the national stages of the competition.

As a minimum, the gym’s trio of fighters reached the quarter finals of the amateur tournament, which, of course delighted head coach Khalil Alam.

He said: “I’m so proud of all three of my fighters because they represented our gym so proudly. Throughout the whole Championship in October, the performances from my fighters were courageous, extremely brave and they were all able to showcase their talent.

“At the Lion Gym, this is the first time we’ve entered our fighters into the England Development Championships, so to come away with the results we have done, including two Yorkshire champions, I’m over the moon.”

Alam added: “Of course, we always enter our fighters into competitions to win; this was no different, but it was important that we saw different elements of our practice show in the performances of our fighters, and we certainly did see that. Our fighters reached a minimum of the quarter finals at national level, and I’m very happy with that. They can learn from this experience for future bouts.

“Furthermore, we allow our fighters at the gym to prepare in the best possible way for bouts and competitions. We felt like we could have entered these fighters into the Development Championship two years ago, but we didn’t want to go into them without the best possible chance of winning. This was definitely the right time.”

Next up for the Lion Gym & Boxing Club is a home show on Saturday 18 November, and they will have the chance to showcase more of their up-and-coming boxing stars at Bradford City’s Banqueting Suite, Valley Parade, with over 400 people expected to be in attendance.

Looking ahead to the event, Alam said: “It’s going to be a great night of boxing and entertainment, and we are all extremely looking forward to it.

“It will give us the chance to show off more of our talent, with 16 of our fighters in action that night. It’s great for us because we get to showcase different styles of fighters, different ages and different weight classes. The experience our fighters will gain from having bouts will be massive.

“Yes, sparring is great but there’s nothing like the experience of fighting competitively in front of a bigger audience. They’ll be able to learn so much from the evening, and as coaches, we will too about our fighters. It’s exciting time for everyone at Lion Gym.”