Working with professional athletes keeps us up to date with how our customer’s products are perceived and used in the real world…
Here at Opalbond one of our roles is to provide brand owners with support and technical information to tailor their products to their customers. A new service Opalbond now offers is the provision of nutritional support to elite athletes. This service benefits the athlete but also allows our team to see how an end user consumes sports nutrition products as part of their training regime. Being a proud sponsor of St Ives Boxing Academy, it made sense for our in-house nutritionists to work with the professional athletes that are based at the club.
We went to meet one of the boxers, Karl Wheeler and his coach Steve Whitwell one afternoon following a training session. Watching Karl train was eye-opening; we realised how hard he must train to prepare for an upcoming fight. Without the correct nutrition, all this hard work could be wasted by the time he fights. Boxing can be a very nutritionally demanding sport, with the weigh in varying between a couple of hours to 36 hours prior to a fight. Without the correct nutrition, you could be facing an opponent who is over 5kg heavier, because they refuelled and rehydrated more effectively than you did post weigh in. Following our consultation with Karl, we decided the priority was to focus on what he should eat and drink following the weigh-in, in preparation for the fight.
Karl’s fight was on 29th October, held at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. Going against Ossie Jervier, it was set to be a tough match. With a big support from the crowd, Karl’s fight was the last of the evening. From being knocked down in the third round, to then knocking Jervier down in the fifth, it was a close call. After 10 gruelling rounds, Karl was announced the winner on points. This great result means that Karl will next be fighting in the Southern Area Cruiserweight final eliminator on 3rd December. A fantastic display of boxing and sportsmanship, we are happy to have been able to help Karl and look forward to continuing to work alongside him for what hopefully will be a successful partnership!