{"id":520667,"date":"2026-04-09T02:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520667\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T02:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:30:18","slug":"east-lothian-boxing-club-holding-launch-event-at-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520667\/","title":{"rendered":"East Lothian Boxing Club holding launch event at new home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n East Lothian Boxing Club<\/a>, which was founded in 2009, found itself homeless and at risk of folding, despite scooping national awards.\n<\/p>\n

\n Now a long-term lease has been secured for the free use of a large gym space at Joe\u2019s Gym, a new community centre on Haddington\u2019s Hospital Road.\n<\/p>\n

\n Callum Colquhoun, who has been involved with the boxing club since the beginning, chairs the club’s committee.\n<\/p>\n

\n He was delighted to see the group fighting back and said: \u201cI resigned myself to the fact, probably about four years ago, that it was not going to happen.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cObviously, as a community warden, I used to work quite closely with the police.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey said \u2018can we not get something started?\u2019 but finding premises was always going to be difficult and we had been trying for years.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Courier wrote an article in 2023 and it was that that article that got us to where we are now.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have never seen so much excitement \u2013 there is more excitement than the last time, I think because we have got a lot of stability.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe know we are secure for at least 15 years and, in 15 years\u2019 time, hopefully, we have built that legacy to keep it going.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs long as there are coaches and members, we will keep it going.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The club will run classes throughout the week, catering for a range of different ages interested in boxing and fitness.\n<\/p>\n

\n Trial sessions since a \u2018soft launch\u2019 in January have already seen sell-out attendances.\n<\/p>\n

\n After securing the space in January, the club<\/a> has worked tirelessly with the generous support of friends, sponsors and scores of volunteers from across the community to transform the space into a community gym.\n<\/p>\n

\n The new space includes a main boxing hall, with a full-scale ring on a large mezzanine, and additional studio facilities for other classes.\n<\/p>\n

\n Heading up the boxing programme will be Keith Colgan, who will be joined by former professional boxer Iain Trotter.\n<\/p>\n

\n They will lead a team of 10 volunteer coaches who will run classes throughout the week, including fitness classes, classes for youngsters and special sessions for women.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mr Trotter was looking forward to the official opening.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said: \u201cI am absolutely buzzing now.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt has been a long time coming, to be honest.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt changed my life \u2013 all for the better.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Founded more than 15 years ago by members of the local community, East Lothian Boxing Club<\/a> became the home of boxing in Haddington.\n<\/p>\n

\n It rose to prominence in the national boxing community, developing both amateur and professional champions, and having a positive impact on the young people of the town.\n<\/p>\n

\n The club also won Club of the Year at the Amateur Boxing Scotland Awards in 2013.\n<\/p>\n

\n However, the club was forced to close its doors in 2018 after struggling to find suitable premises.\n<\/p>\n

\n Joe\u2019s Gym has been named in memory of Joe Forte, a keen sportsman who was also a stalwart of different community groups in the town.\n<\/p>\n

\n Joe\u2019s Gym is part of a community centre supported by The Haddington Community Interest Company.\n<\/p>\n

\n In addition to East Lothian Boxing Club, Joe\u2019s Gym will also be home to the East Lothian Mums Club, a non-profit supporting women and young mothers in the community.\n<\/p>\n

\n Doors open at Friday’s launch event at 3pm; the official opening takes place at 5pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Lothian Boxing Club, which was founded in 2009, found itself homeless and at risk of folding, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-520667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}