On the 19th June 2008, University of Portsmouth Amateur Boxing Coach Wayne Gardiner was awarded Coach of the Year by John Inverdale at the Annual BUSA (British University Students Association) Dinner in London.

Since leaving the Royal Navy and joining the club in 2005, Wayne has almost single-handedly transformed it from a loose group of enthusiasts to arguably the most successful University Club in the country.

There are now 34 carded boxers competing in an average of 104 bouts per season from Penzance to Aberdeen. Last year they hosted 3 well-attended shows and entered competitions in Denmark & Norway as well as every available University and ABA Senior Championships bringing home plenty of gold and silver medals.

Wayne was also instrumental in bringing Universities and the ABA together to hold the inaugural English Universities Championships at Sheffield in 2007, and the British Championships soon after.

This was a delicate task that required a great deal of time, determination and commitment to ensure that the University Championships were of a standard comparable with other ABA tournaments.

Paul Porter, Sheffield Boxing Development Officer of ABAE said that without Wayne, both championships would have been much more difficult to run, and might not have happened at all.

University of Portsmouth Amateur Boxing Club is now widely recognised as the most active University Boxing club in the country, more than holding its own with clubs in the outside world.

This is due to Waynes disciplined command of his athletes, and the fact that he obviously cares for their welfare above all else. Several students have now achieved ABA Tutor status and are taking their skills out to local schools and the next generation of boxers.

The students themselves lay the reason for their success at Waynes door. They demonstrated this by nominating him for the University of Portsmouth Coach of the Year, which he won in May prior to this new award.

Wayne Commented: It was a pleasure, an honour and a surprise to receive this award, I thought it was only presented to rowing and sailing coaches. I must say that the success of the club is not solely down to me.

The students, the staff, BUSA, ABAE and many more people helped us to get where we are. I have to say a personal thank you to Q Shillingford, the England ABA Advanced Coach who introduced me to coaching and helped me to get the position at the University - I would not be where I am if not for his passion and knowledge of the sport.

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Congrats dude!

Thu, 10 Jul 2008