An Edinburgh tiling instructor is among the athletes to compete at the Commonwealth Games 2022.
26-year-old Matthew McHale will be leaving behind the tiles at his Edinburgh based Trades Training School to compete with Team Scotland at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The Bantamweight boxer has had all of his spare time taken up with training for the event at Lochend Gym in the capital.
Under the careful watch of head coach Terry McCormack, McHale’s career has recently taken off as he made his way into the Boxing Scotland’s Team as well as into the European Championships this May. The boxer is due to make his debut on Tuesday, August 2.
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Like McHale, owner of the Trades Training School, Anthony O’Neil, is also a keen boxer and the pair met in 2016 when they were both training at Lochend Gym. Anthony went on to hire McHale in 2018 as a training assistant as well as become one of McHale’s local business sponsors.
Since then, McHale has become a qualified tiling instructor while still finding time to continue his boxing training with the support of his colleagues and students.
Antony commented: “Recruiting Matty has been one of the best decisions I’ve made. Matty has managed to balance his boxing training with his teaching career and has excelled in both. He's a respected instructor at the school, however, we'll all be delighted to see his boxing career take over.”
Everyone at Trades Training School, including students, have been rooting for McHale over the past year. Staff and students gather to watch his matches live and four members of staff are even travelling to Birmingham to give him support at the games.
Earlier this year, McHale attended a training camp in Madrid and was recently in Sheffield at the multi-nations camp to prepare for the games.
McHale said: “I'd like to give a massive thanks to Antony for everything he's done for me. I work with supportive people who want to see each other do well, and I take great pleasure in teaching and passing on the skills Antony taught me.
"It's really hard juggling my boxing with work, but this is made a hundred times easier with the supportive team around me.”
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