Boxing: Fusilier from Rochdale wins annual Harts Boxing Championship

Lance Corporal Leigh Petrecz with Colonel John Matthews OBE

Rochdale soldier, Fusilier Leigh Petrecz, of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers won the First Fusiliers Boxing Competition at their annual “Harts Medals” Championships.

Fighting in the ‘light heavyweight’ category, Lance Corporal Petrecz won by a technical knockout.

Lance Corporal Petrecz joined the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers along with his brother and while serving as a section second-in-command in Y Company, has excelled in the sport. He is hoping to go onto the demanding Section Commanders Battle Course in Brecon, Wales early next year, in order to be promoted to Corporal and become a section commander later in the year. He intends to continue his boxing soon after.

Having recently returned from OP ORBITAL in the Ukraine, Leigh has recently been in his home town of Rochdale on training camps, and attended Hamer Boxing Club for some tough sparring and demanding training sessions.

Sergeant Major Jim Kenworthy who heads up the recruiting team for the North West said: “The Harts Medals Championships is an important date in the Fusilier calendar and everyone looks forward to supporting their colleagues in this fought after competition.

“Lance Corporal Petrecz did really well in the championships and worked really hard to take the title. We are extremely proud of his achievements and sure there is lots more to come from this boxing superstar.”

The inter-company competition, which took place last week at Tidworth Barracks, the home of First Fusiliers, is named after Captain Hart of the Northumberland Fusiliers who famously fell after refusing to surrender to a superior German force at Passchendaele in 1917. In his will he left funds to purchase the ‘Harts Medals’ in 1920 for boxing, which are still contested to this day within the Regiment.

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, known as ‘The Fusiliers’, is an English infantry Regiment in the British Army, formed from four historic Fusilier Regiments in 1968. Since then, the Fusiliers have seen service across the world in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Balkans, the 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. The Regiment has two battalions – First Fusiliers in Tidworth and Fifth Fusiliers in Newcastle – and both adapt readily to challenging scenarios.