Boxing a hit at the Vaisakhi Festival 2023 in London’s Trafalgar Square

England Boxing put on a day of boxing masterclasses to support the Vaisakhi celebrations that took place last weekend in Trafalgar Square.

South East’s Club Support Officer Max Segre attended the event along with St Pancras Amateur Boxing Club and England Boxing’s community apprentices Gabrielle Reid and James Kilobo.

The famous area of city glowed with the orange colours of the Khalsa.

Every year thousands of people from all over the country and different backgrounds gather to celebrate Vaisakhi with great fun, music, dance and cultural activities.

This year, the focus was on Health and Wellbeing in conjunction with the first The Sikh Games in August, with around 30,000 people expected to attend the day’s celebrations.

For the first time, boxing along with Gatka (Sikh Martial Art) was on display for people to try – and proved a huge success.

Hundreds of people dropped by throughout the day to take part in a boxing session, learn the basics of boxing, play some games and get information on how to join a local club.

There was a huge demand for the boxing sessions on offer. England Boxing were meant to deliver a 30-minute boxing session every two hours, but due to the number of children wanting to take part, the team. along with the help of St Pancras Boxing Club. delivered back-to-back boxing sessions throughout the day.

The England Boxing team handed out souvenirs to take away such as pens, stickers and bookmarks that have a QR code to sign post people to their nearest affiliated boxing club.

“It’s great to be able to come and deliver boxing taster sessions at events like this which gives great exposure to the sport and gives people a fun introduction to boxing which we hope will encourage them to get down to their local club,” said Segre.

“The coaches from St Pancras Boxing Club and our two England Boxing apprentices made the sessions fun and engaging, while still ensuring the participants learnt the basics of the sport.

“I’m always looking to take boxing into communities that we previously haven’t been to, so being invited to the Vaisakhi festival for the first time was something I was keen to support.”