GB Boxing appoints three new full-time Podium Coaches
GB Boxing has strengthened its performance team with the appointment of Paul Bennett, Darren Maher and Phil Sellers as full-time Podium Coaches.
The trio have more than 60 years combined coaching experience and will work with boxers in GB Boxing’s Podium and Academy squads as part of the World Class Programme (WCP) for boxing, which is based at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
All three have been working with GB Boxing for a number of years as part-time Performance Coaches and will now step into full-time roles.
They will report to GB Boxing’s Performance Director, Rob McCracken, and work alongside existing Podium Coaches, Lee Pullen, Dave Alloway, Gary Hale and Graham Alderson and the sport science and medical professionals that support the WCP.
Rob McCracken said: “Paul, Darren and Phil all possess a wealth of experience and are excellent additions to GB Boxing’s full-time coaching team. All three of them possess the exceptional personal qualities we always look for in our coaches and I firmly believe they will make a positive contribution to both the future development of the WCP and the boxers themselves.”
Paul Bennett began coaching at Kirkby ABC in 2000 and remained there until 2011 when he became Head Coach at Towerhill ABC in Liverpool. He has worked with England Boxing since 2012 and spent two years as the national team coach from 2015. Either side of this, Bennett has had two spells as a part-time GB Boxing Performance Coach from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2017 onwards. In this role, he was part of the coaching team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, when boxers from Great Britain won six medals.
Bennett said: “Being part of GB Boxing is the pinnacle. You get to work at the elite end of the sport with the best boxers in Great Britain, alongside amazing coaches, in the best facility in the country. It is what you aspire towards when you first start your coaching career. This is the very top of the tree. I am over the moon to be in this position.”
Darren Maher competed for Knowsley Vale ABC in Liverpool and Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Commandos, where he first took up coaching. After leaving the forces in 2000, he coached at Knowsley Vale ABC for over 20 years eventually becoming Head Coach. He worked with England Boxing from 2007 to 2012 and was appointed one of GB Boxing’s part-time Performance Coaches in 2013. In his coaching career, Maher has worked with numerous national amateur champions, including Robbie Davies Jr, who went on to win British, Commonwealth and European titles as a professional.
Maher said: “I am overwhelmed to have secured this role full-time. To have the opportunity to work full-time in a world class, highly motivated environment like GB Boxing and be able to focus solely on coaching and developing the nation’s most dedicated and talented boxers with my colleagues is a privilege. It is the perfect scenario for me, and a dream come true. It means the world to me.”
Phil Sellers boxed as an amateur for Burmantofts ABC in Leeds up until the age of 23 when he took on the role of Head Coach to help prevent the club from closure following the death of the previous incumbent in 1993.
He has held the role ever since and helped to develop a number of national amateur champions, including Jack Bateson and Conor Loftus, who both went on to become part of the GB Boxing squad. Sellers was appointed a part-time GB Boxing Performance Coach in 2013 and in 2016 he attended the Rio Olympics as part of the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) Ambition Programme.
In 2021 he was the lead coach of the GB Boxing team that competed at the European U22 Championships in Italy where Gemma Richardson and Harris Akbar won gold and bronze respectively.
Sellers said: “Being a Podium Coach is not something you expect when you first begin your coaching career, but I’ve worked hard over the years to get myself into this position and I’m looking forward to being able to work even more closely with my colleagues and this group of boxers.”