Amateur indoor contact sports can resume following declining case numbers (Photo: Bauer Radio News)
The Covid restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the Omicron variant in Scotland have been eased, allowing indoor contact sports to restart, including amateur boxing.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the changes last week, allowing non-professional indoor contact sports to resume from today, the 24th of January.
According to Free Radio News, boxing clubs across the country are looking forward to welcoming back amateurs.
Inverness City Boxing Club Head Coach Laurie Redfern is hoping there will be no more restrictions in the future.
“For the last couple of years, amateur boxing has been stopping, starting and stopping. It has been quite a hard time, we’ve never experienced it in my lifetime,” he told reporter Liam Ross.
Laurie has been kept busy though, as he currently has three pro boxers training for a huge fight in Inverness on the 5th of March.
Professional athletes have been allowed to keep training during the latest round of restrictions.
Laurie added: “We’ve managed to get through it and we’re looking forward to the boys having their first professional bout.
He pointed out that keeping the boxing club open is a huge boost for the local community.
“The kids love it and I love training them, I get a lot of satisfaction out of that.
“I was a kid myself so I know what they’re looking for so I try and give them that,” Laurie said.
Scotland’s National Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch told Free Radio News: “It feels like a hopeful day, a day where we’ve been able to respond to falling numbers as a result of the behaviour of Scots and the vaccination programme.
“Numbers now look as if they’re falling. They’re not nothing – they’re still significant – and we still have around 1500 people in hospital, and we still have too many infections which is why the baseline mitigations like face masks and working from home are still in place,” Leitch said.
