A LONG STRETCH

THOUSANDS SIGN UP FOR FITNESS CLUB CREATED BY FORMER PRISONER WHO TURNED HIS LIFE AROUND AFTER HIS RELEASE

- NAOMI DESOUZA

AN ex-Birmingham prisoner has thousands of people following a fitness routine he perfected while locked up behind bars.

Rudy O'Halloran from Handsworth created fitness club ‘ROCUP’ to find purpose after feeling “lost” following his release from prison - and it has since exploded into a rapidly growing UK movement.

Rocup, which stands for “rise over challenges” was set up as a running club in 2023 by Rudy as a way of turning his back on Birmingham gang and street wars.

"I felt like a 13-year-old starting my life over. But I knew I couldn't go back to the streets. I had to find another way,” Rudy said.

By the age of 13, Rudy had been kicked out of school and was selling drugs. At 17, his best friend was stabbed to death and by 18 he had been shot in the leg, leaving bullet fragments that remain in his body to this day.

It was this moment that drove him further into the streets and fully embedded into a life of crime - which would eventually catch up with him.

At 25 years old, Rudy was sentenced to five years in prison after police found him with 2kg of cocaine.

Now, hundreds of people turn up to a Birmingham running club he set up in the months following his release in 2022.

He credits a friendship and subsequent prison yard routine he formed with a fellow inmate as “life changing.”

Rudy, 31, said: "I was on the last year of my prison sentence and I met Tony, he used to wake up at 5am in the morning. He said exercise gives him a sense of purpose.