NI Commonwealth Games boxing team: Nicole Clyde 54 kg, Caitlin Fryers 51 kg, Michaela Walsh 57 kg, Kaci Rock 65 kg, Janseen Hill 70 kg
IT was third time lucky for Michaela Walsh at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games four years ago as the Holy Family boxer finally struck gold.
Walsh had been beaten in the 2014 final by Olympic champion Nicola Adams, and the Belfast fighter ran into another hometown boxer in the Gold Coast four years later as she had to settle for silver again against Australian Skye Nicholson.
Walsh topped the podium in Birmingham with a victory over Nigeria’s Elizabeth Oshoba and fulfilled a promise to her grandfather.
Twelve years after her journey began Walsh will return to Glasgow as she’s been named for a fourth consecutive Games.
“I was a kid back then, so when they look back now I’m very proud of that achievement, and obviously it was a springboard into the rest of my boxing career, so I look back with great, great memories, and I’m really looking forward to go back to Glasgow, where it all started for me,.” says Michaela.
“I’ve fond memories of Glasgow, I think obviously at the time, it hurt a lot, obviously getting so close to the gold medal and then I made my grandad a promise that I’d win a gold medal.
”I thought I won the fight, but the judges didn’t see that way, but that’s boxing, and it’s happened to me many times as well, after that, so now I look back being really proud and obviously going then to Birmingham in 2022 with my brother Aidan and both of us winning gold together.
“I think that made it all that more special.
“So, I think I would definitely take winning silver back, then for me to win the gold in Birmingham with Aidan I think that was one of the most special things.
“It was special I got to keep my promise to my grandad to return home with gold medal from the Commonwealth Games.
“It was amazing to win, it wasn’t even more so the medal itself, it’s what it actually meant to me.
“I remember in 2014 when sadly my grandad started losing his life, I remember making him that promise and I think just being able to keep that promise, was always in the back of my head with two silvers, though obviously a medal, any medal doesn’t define me as a person.
” mI think it just I was personal to me, because I made that promise to my grandad and just going out there to be able to do that meant a lot to me.
”I remember breaking down a wee bit on the podium because I nearly felt his presence with me, that he was looking down at me, so just being able to do that was something special with me, and I’ll keep that with me for the rest of my life.”
