Copyright falkirkherald
A Forth Valley College joinery lecturer has proved that he is as hard as the nails he teaches his students how to build with by becoming a kickboxing world champion despite suffering a serious injury. Gareth Alexander, who lives near Larbert, secured a World Kickboxing Association senior world championship title win earlier this month in Sheffield despite fighting with a broken rib. He sustained that injury the day before his gold success in the under-70 kg category. In total, Alexander returned home with a gold and silver medal in points fighting and light contact respectively. At the finals, he fought Dan Nguyen - a 19-time world title holder and eight-times European champion - on the way to claiming a silver medal, and it was during this series of bouts that he sustained his serious injury. Then, just one day later, he fought Englishman Eddie Hoolison, himself a black belt and well respected champion. Alexander beat him with a score of nine to five points awarded by three judges, to become world champion in the points discipline at his weight level. “It’s amazing. I was in floods of tears when the referee raised my arm in the ring as I have been on such a whirlwind journey since January to get to this point,” Alexander admitted. At the moment, Alexander is resting to recover from his broken rib, but has set his sights on an invitation to the 2026 World Championship to defend his title in Delaware, USA, for which he will need to find some sponsorship. He was quick to thank all his family friends, colleagues and his students for supporting and encouraging him on his journey over the last ten months. The 49-year-old, who was also recently attained a second Dan for his black belt, added: “To be honest I have amazed myself at what I have achieved. It has been humbling to see the amount of people who have messaged me to say that doing this at my age has also inspired them to work on their own goals. My colleagues and students have also been a big part of this journey – even though many of them thought I was ill or on weight loss drugs – and they have encouraged me all the way. I also can’t thank Aggie and Susanne in the Stirling Campus gym who have been allowing me to use the facilities. “Winning in the ring is amazing and what an amazing high it was to win and lift the gold medal and the world championship belt! Since winning I have thought about by old trainer and instructor who I drifted apart from all those years ago when I was Scottish champion. He always said he could take me to the top level in the professional game, but due to circumstance was not to be. I always wondered if I could have made it, winning this Seniors title has gone some way to answering that question.” It really has been a remarkable ten months for the popular lecturer - who had drifted away from a sport he had been on the cusp of dominating in the late 1990s. He won the Scottish title back in 1997 and had secured his black belt, but a fall out with his then instructor saw him move to traditional boxing and then out of sport altogether. Alexander concentrated on his career as a joiner and ran his own business while having three sons and raising his family. He moved into teaching about four years ago but it was while out on a drive with his mate that he made the call to give kickboxing another try, with the seniors his target. He revealed: “I was out the car with my friend last January and I was telling him I had weighed in at fourteen and a half stones (93kg). He made me realise that with my family, work and studying, I needed to find something for myself. I decided to just go back to kickboxing one day a week. I started sparring, was doing well in the ring and began to lose a lot of weight in the gym. As well as using the Stirling Campus gym regularly, I was training twice a week at Garry Shaw’s Martial Arts (GSMA) gym in Falkirk. “I was encouraged to enter the Scottish International Open event at Braehead Arena in June in the under-75kg category and open weight categories. I won a silver medal and a bronze medal. At this point I realised that I was still at a decent level. By placing in this event, it qualified me for the Scottish squad which subsequently meant qualification for the World Championships as well. I realised however that I still needed to be lighter and started training even harder for the next three months, often twice a day.” Along side GSMA, Alexander also trained at Emerge-fit Thai gym in Grangemouth and WAMA Headhunters in Falkirk. He’s worked at Forth Valley College for four years and recently gained his Teaching Qualification in Further Education.
