During Young's Sports Awards dinner on April 2, two locals Roger Richens and Albert Hopkins were inducted into the local Sports Hall of Fame for their sporting achievements over their lifetimes.

The Young Witness caught up with Roger Richens and spoke about his sporting career as a boxer and being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame.

Roger said he was really honoured and humbled to be inducted into the sports hall of fame.

"To be there with all of the other great sportsmen in Young is a real surreal honour for myself," he said.

"Young was a great community to grow up in. You were always encouraged to do sport, you weren't forced to do it ... You had a lot of opportunities there to participate in all different sports."

Roger started boxing in 1964 when going to the Police Boys Club - which is now known as the PCYC - with his brothers who used to box there.

Roger said he was around seven when he started boxing and got involved when the trainer asked if he wanted to try his and boxing when watching his brothers in the ring.

He had his first bout within the next two months, and while he lost that bout, along with the next three, Roger stuck with it and went on to win around 40 matches in a row following that.

During his early years boxing Roger picked up several titles along the way including the NSW Schoolboys title when he was 13 and the Riverina Seven Stone title in 1972.

In 1973 he picked up both NSW and Australian Amateur titles in the Light Flyweight category.

Following that, in 1974 Roger was selected to represent Australia in the Commonwealth Games, and being 17 he was the youngest boxer to represent Australia in the Commonwealth Games at the time.

Roger made it to the quarter finals before losing to the eventual gold medalist winner Stephen Muchoki from Kenya.

Following on from his Commonwealth Games experiences, Roger had a good year in 1974 picking up the Australian Golden Gloves, NSW Golden Gloves as well as the Australian and NSW Light Flyweight titles

Roger then hung up his gloves for 12 months, saying he was losing motivation and wanted to have a break from the heavy training.

However he came back to compete in 1975 where he tried out for the Australian Olympic team.

Roger said he was supposed to have a fight prior to the Olympic trials, but that fell through and he went into the trial without having a fight for 12 months.

His Olympic attempts weren't to be and he was narrowly defeated in the trial based on a decision by the judges.

Roger then turned professional where he had a fairly successful professionally career, claiming the NSW Flyweight Title and fought for the Australian title before finally hanging up the boxing gloves for good in 1978 after he got married.

Roger said if it wasn't for the community support of Young he probably would not have gotten anywhere near what he achieved, with the town even helping to raise money for him to compete in Tahiti in 1974.

"The community was right behind me and I can't thank them enough for what they did for me," he said.