Marsh Muay Thai win

By Lachlan Ellis

A local Muay Thai student has won a state award, named the Fighter of the Year in his age group.

Seventeen-year-old Jack Allen from Bacchus Marsh was awarded the Teen Male Fighter of the Year Award by Muay Thai Victoria on Sunday 10 December, after just two years of training in the sport.

Mr Allen said it was a surprise to receive the award, but was happy to see his hard work pay off.

“It sort of was a surprise, there’s a lot of guys who’ve been training a lot longer than me that haven’t done that sort of thing. So it felt like I’ve been accelerated a bit,” he told the Moorabool News.

“After school I’m there about two to three hours a day, six days a week. I love the technical side of it, I love breaking techniques down and seeing how it all works. I picked Muay Thai because I knew the owner of the gym, and I’ve always liked the idea of striking. I started just with the intention of learning to defend myself.”

Mr Allen says that since he joined Bacchus Marsh’s Art of Training, Muay Thai has become “an obsession”, and a sport he’d love to take even further.

“I love training there, it’s great. Daniel Nguyen, my coach, is amazing, the man’s a genius. Next year I’ve got Nationals in March and I turn 18 in April, so hopefully some time after that I can go pro.” he said.