The Olympus Chestermere Boxing Club Olympus Fighters put on a show last weekend, as they went 7-0 at the Boxing Alberta Provincials on Saturday before earning six provincial titles on Sunday.
Co-owner of the Olympus Chestermere Boxing Club Alex Halat says the strong provincials showing is a proud moment not just for the athletes, but the entire community.
“Our local youths are amazing; they have worked their butts off for the last year or two. Boxing is a sport that we have brought here to town for kids that didn’t play mainstream sports such as hockey, basketball, and football.”
The program has grown over the past three years with 150 kids that are now involved in it within that are 20 kids that box competitively and then there are a handful of pros that are involved as well. They come from Chestermere and surrounding communities like Langdon, Strathmore, and more.
Halat explains bringing home six provincial titles is quite an accomplishment, and that the last time that boxing was in Chestermere was 19 years ago and then it just disappeared.
“To bring something back within the last two or three years and you remember COVID was part of those two or three years. We didn't have a real great opportunity to train a lot of the kids and to see the success they've had and the dedication they put forward towards the sport, it's been amazing, so I'm proud of these kids.”
Continuing to grow the sport in any capacity, whether it's on the rec level, the kids' level or the competitive level is something that Halat is very excited to keep doing.
“Giving the youth in the community an option in terms of another sport to play in the community.”
Even though Chestermere wasn’t the host for this provincials, they were fortunate enough to host Bronze Gloves back in November and Halat says they will be looking forward to hosting other provincial championships in the coming years.
“We actually just sanctioned the Chestermere Pro Combat Commission last Tuesday, which was about a 12-month process but on June 30 we will actually be hosting the first pro-am in Chestermere in 19 years.”
In this pro-am there will be 5 pro fights and 10 amateur fights. There will be many locals that will be competing at the pro level.
Chestermere is the fourth pro commission in the province of Alberta other than Edmonton, Calgary and Cold Lake.
Congratulations to all the fighters who earned medals at provincials, being:
- Lucas Pashak (gold)
- Evan Lester (gold)
- Quang Ngo (gold)
- Arusheel Sharma (gold)
- Ben lokani (gold)
- Kimani Crawford (gold)
- Cierra Baskin (silver)
- Tricia Floyd (silver)
- Sam Fajardo (silver)
- Jardo (silver)
- Israel Monge (silver)
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