An Eccles boxing gym is appealing for more girls to join the club after a Salford schoolgirl has progressed to the National Junior Championships. 

Poppy Moorhouse, 15, is one of two girls who box at Barton ABC and one of the club’s biggest success stories. Poppy joined the club back in February and has already made it to the National Junior Championships which was held two weeks ago in Oxford.

Poppy said: “In this gym I’ve never worried about being with the boys, they’re so supportive and they’ve never excluded me or anything because I am a girl.

“My older cousin used to box quite a lot, he was quite good at it, and I’ve always been very sporty, and I was bored and wanted to try something new.”

The coaches want to encourage more girls to join the club and take an interest in the wider sport.

Head Coach, Stuart Curry, explained: “This last 12 to 18 months we’ve had about three or four girls take an interest in the club, Poppy got to national junior final this season.”

Barton Athletic Boxing Club is a voluntarily run club home to boxing, road-running, weightlifting and general fitness. Currently the boxing sessions are mixed gender with only two girls attending the club.

Despite the likes of household names such as Nicola Adams there still are not many boxing clubs in the country that are solely for females. Many of the clubs in Salford are men-only gyms which puts many women and girls off attending due to the sports male-dominated stereotype.

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Poppy explained about her goals in boxing: “If I got the opportunity, I would love to go professional but right now I just want to get as much experience as possible.”

Barton ABC holds boxing sessions every Monday and Wednesday for over 10s then Saturday and Sundays for carded boxers only subject to invitation.

“Despite not having a female coach we really want more girls to join” Coach Stuart said.

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