Revealed: The Peterborough Telegraph Gym of the Year 2019

Gym of the Year winners Ruby Parvez and Tom Fletcher at Anytime Fitness EMN-190204-173421009

The team at the gym in the Ortongate Centre was enjoying a first anniversary celebration when they received the good news - they had come out on top of the pile after two rounds of voting by PT readers.

“This is fantastic,” said manager Tom Fletcher, who after a decade in the health and fitness industry helped set up the franchise operation 12 months ago.

“We like to think of ourselves as a family, community gym and we like to give something back, which is why we held the first anniversary party.

Runners-up in the Gym of the Year competition Escape Your Limits at Tresham Road. Danny Barker, Danielle Walker, Darren Fox, Dan Cumberworth, Lucy Januszek, Travis Brown EMN-190104-214613009

“Winning the Gym of the Year competition is a nice little birthday present for us.”

The gym, as the name suggests, is open 24 hours a day- and if you join an Anytime Fitness gym you can use any across the world.

“We get in people from all over, visiting Peterborough and searching us out,” said Tom.

“But our regular membership is growing and we have a massive range of members from the big muscly guys to those who just want to improve their health and fitness, maybe with a class or two, get some help from our instructors, or just have a chat while they workout.

Gym of the Year 3rd place - Ami Veni, Liliana Dousa, Aleks Majer and Brooke Allen at the Fitness Zone. EMN-190204-173213009

“And we are here to help people through the process no matter what stage they are at.”

Runner-up this year is Escape Your Limits, on Tresham Road, Orton Southgate, which runs fun, exciting, challenging and rewarding group fitness classes.

The result left training and operations manager Lucy Januszek, who only took over six months ago, happy if a little deflated.

“We went all out to win,” she said. “We are still a new gym and don’t have a massive membership base, but we wanted to let people know where we are and what we are about.”

Third place goes to the long-established Fitness Zone on Wentworth Street in the city centre.

“We were excited to make the Top 10, so this is just amazing,” said manager Amy Veni. “We are the only ‘women only’ club in the city and although we have never entered anything like this before I thought ‘let’s do this”.

“This is a very friendly, welcoming place to come. It is very much a beginners’ club, there are no mirrors, and it is very different to anything else in the city.

“We wanted to get the message out there and this really helps. ”