Boxer Terri Harper on the 'gruelling' Doncaster hill she uses to get fighting fit

  • Video report by Chris Dawkes

In the 1976 film Rocky, Sylvester Stallone scales the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in what has become perhaps the most iconic sports training sequence ever seen in cinema.

It may not have the same status, but for fighters in Doncaster a steep city street has gained its own level notoriety for the gruelling drills which separate the best from the rest.

On Saturday mornings, athletes challenge themselves to run up and down a 100m stretch of Pitman Road in the Denaby Main area 10 times.

Among them is former world champion Terri Harper, who is in training to fight Scot Hannah Rankin for the Rankin is the WBA and IBO super-welterweight titles this weekend.

Her regular drills on Pitman Road have led to the street being nicknamed "Harper's Hill".

"It's gruelling," she said. "There's times when I've come away from this hill and I've really struggled driving home. It brings out the best in you and really pushes you on.

"Mentally and physically, it's really demanding on the body. You have to have the mental toughness to get back up the hill."

Harper's trainer, Stefy Bull, said: "Anybody that has boxed in our village has been on this hill. It's great for fitness and when you know that you can get up and down this hill ten times the week before a fight you know you are fit and ready to go."

Harper, 25, lost for the first time as a professional – and with it her two world titles – to American Alycia Baumgardner last November.

Terri Harper lost her world titles to Alycia Baumgardner. Credit: PA

She is stepping up no fewer than three weight categories to fight Rankin in Nottingham on Saturday, 24 September, on a card that also includes Maxi Hughes defending his IBO lightweight title against Sheffield boxer Kid Galahad.

Bull said victory would represent a huge achievement: "Terri was the first British female world champion. Now she has got a chance to become Britain's first ever two weight champion."

Harper said she feels "comfortable" about the step up to fighting at super-welterweight.

"I want them belts back around my waist and be back on top," she said.

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