Langford Mayor Stew Young plans to bring Boxing B.C. on Bear Mountain.
The plan is to get a provincial facility there to join other national team athletes already training there. Bear Mountain is home to Golf Canada’s centralized development program and the Canadian mountain biking team that trains there for part of the year. The boxing facility would be in the same complex as the Pacific Institute of Sport Excellence (PISE) that the Canadian Sports Institute plans to build.
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“It will be a local B.C. boxing storefront where people can come and train and it gives them an opportunity to train with other Olympic athletes,” Young said.
Bob Pegues, Boxing B.C. team head coach, is thrilled about the facility and says they’ll look to local companies to help build the ring itself. Building a boxing ring costs approximately $12,000, he says, but hopes the City of Langford will be able to accomplish it for around $10,000.
Young hopes the new boxing gym would lead to an opportunity to have intercontinental boxing - South America and North America in one location.
“It’d be pretty exciting with the athletes locally,” Young said.
The Emerald Gloves tournament in November is held at City Centre Park and the 2019 Super Channel Championships, hosted by Boxing B.C. is set for Westin Bear Mountain Resort and Spa in April. The Super Channel Championships take place on the tennis courts, of which a dome will cover them, enclosing a space of 21,000 square feet.
The new facility would be ready at the end of this year or beginning of next year.