Hannah Beharry was just 17 years old when she walked into the All Stars Boxing Club in West London and declared that she wanted to box.

A fairly troublesome teenager, she was always in scuffles in the street and was what some would term a bit of a ‘smart mouth’. Where many girls would be intimidated in an all male environment, Hannah entered the gym with no reticence. At last it seemed being the only girl in a household with five brothers had given her some advantage.

Hannah’s trained hard and she was always very aggressive in sparring. It was obvious she was pretty fearless but she needed calming down; it was also plain to see that she was very determined and pushed herself to the limit physically. For someone who was quite unruly in her early years and held bags of energy, Hannah admits that boxing helped her turn her life around.

With just two bouts under her belt Hannah was selected to box for England in the European championships taking place in Warsaw. It was to prove a step too far as she lost in the second round to a strong experienced girl from Russia. “That was one of my hardest bouts and I realised just how much I had to learn”. She had two further bouts for All Stars but she became frustrated as she was only getting one or two bouts a season and her record now stood at 5 bouts won 2 which didn’t reflect her ability.

“Boxing gave me discipline and focus, I don’t go getting myself into trouble now, all I care about is training, improving my skills and when my next competition is going to be”.

Hannah’s first bout was ironically against a girl from Haringey Police Boxing Club, the club Hannah now boxes for. It was a dinner show and she stopped her opponent in the 3 rd round. In her second bout Hannah won the class C female ABAS title at 50kg.

(Image © Rosie Collins)